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Title: The Social Work of the Salvation Army
Author: Edwin Gifford Lamb
Release Date: October 20, 2009 [EBook #30295]
Language: English
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THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE
SALVATION ARMY
BY
EDWIN GIFFORD LAMB, A.B.
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political Science
Columbia University
New York
1909
COPYRIGHT, 1909
BY
EDWIN GIFFORD LAMB
PREFACE.
I use the word "Social" in the title of this work to suggest that, save
in an auxiliary way, I am not attempting to describe the religious
features of the organization. Such a field of investigation would prove
a very profitable and interesting one, but it is a field, which, for the
sake of clearness and impartial study, should be kept separate. The
organization itself recognizes the primary division. Commander
Booth-Tucker, the leader of the Army in the United States from 1896 to
1904, says, "The Salvation Army is the evolution of two great ideas:
first, that of reaching with the gospel of salvation the masses who are
outside the pale of ordinary church influence, and second, that of
caring for their temporal as well as spiritual interests."[1]
I have secured very little data from books, as there is but little
authentic literature on the subject. Primarily, the data for this
treatise were taken from personal observation. In pursuing the subject I
have visited Salvation Army social institutions of every description. In
addition to visiting the larger cities of the United States and the
three Army colonies, situated in Ohio, Colorado and California,
respectively, I have investigated the work in London, where the Army had
its origin, and at the farm colony in Hadleigh, on the river Thames,
some thirty miles from London. I have slept in the hotels, worked in the
industrial homes, wandered over the farm colonies, and mingled with the
inmates of other types of Army institutions.
Nov., 1909. E. G. L.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Pamphlet "The Salvation Army in the United States."
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Preface 5
Introduction 7-15
CHAPTER I
The Salvation Army Industrial Department 16-62
CHAPTER II
The Salvation Army Hotels and Lodging Houses 63-98
CHAPTER III
The Farm Colonies of the Salvation Army 99-116
CHAPTER IV
The Salvation Army Slum Department 117-121
CHAPTER V
The Salvation Army Rescue Department 122-126
CHAPTER VI
Some Minor Features of the Salvation Army Social Work 127-131
CHAPTER VII
Conclusion 132-139
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
The Salvation Army was founded by William Booth in London, England, in
1865. Previous to this time Mr. Booth had been a successful clergyman in
the Methodist Church, and had become widely known throughout England as
a revivalist. As time passed, he had become more and more interested in
the condition of the un-churched masses, and as his church did not
approve of his taking up work among the masses in connection with it as
an organization, he had, in 1861, separated from the Methodists. With
little support, he established in London what was known as The Christian
Mission.
From the first, numbers of converts were made, and soon several missions
were established in London, and other cities of England. From the first,
too, the agency of women was an important feature. Especially was this
true in visitation among the lower classes. In regard to the foundation
of the Army itself and in connection with its earlier successes, much
credit must be given to Mrs. Booth, the wife of William Booth. She
became as noted a speaker and revivalist as her husband, and together,
they made plans for the movement. Unfortunately she died of cancer in
1890. Through these early years of the movement its management, almost
unconsciously, developed along lines that were military in form. At
first the title of "Captain" was used among the sailors and fishermen to
designate the local leader of the company, and then it was extended
wherever, among the rough element, the "Mr." or "Rev." would seem out of
place. The usage and the spirit accompanying it soon spread, and by the
year 1879 military methods and titles were officially added. The Rev.
Wm. Booth, who, up to this time, had been known as "Superintendent of
the Christian Mission," became "General" Booth, and the "Mission" became
the "Salvation Army."[2]
This addition of military methods seems to have accelerated the movement
by favoring efficient and systematic control. Soon after this time, we
find, the organization had spread to the United States, Canada,
Australia, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany
and Italy. Then missionary work was taken up in India, and later on, in
Africa, Java and Japan. At the present time (1908), according to its
reports, the Army occupies fifty-two different countries and colonies.
In no country has its rate of progress been more remarkable than in the
United States, where in point of numbers, the local organization now
ranks second only to that of Great Britain.[3]
Along with the rapid growth went a differentiation almost as rapid and
unique as the growth itself. In fact, both reacted on each other. The
work was separated first into three main departments, viz.: Spiritual,
Social and Trade. It will be necessary to make a brief statement of this
differentiation in detail. In the Spiritual Department we have the
extension of the original idea, that of converting the people. Corps, as
the different religious groups were called, sprang up and multiplied
until even the smaller towns were occupied. Converts were added by
hundreds and thousands. Large numbers of the brightest and best of these
converts were utilized in extending the work still further, and after
undergoing a brief training, were sent out, some to aid the movement in
the mother country, others to begin the work in different parts of
Europe and in America, and still others as missionaries to all parts of
the world. Meanwhile, the work in each local organization or Corps,
became systematized, and the Corps were united into Sections or
Divisions, the Divisions into larger districts called Provinces, and the
Provinces into Commands, which for the most part controlled the
territory of an entire country. Each of these divisions from the Corps
to the Command, was delegated to an officer who had sole charge, and
who was responsible to the officer above him. For example, the United
States, at present, is divided into two Commands; the first extending
from New York to Chicago; the second from Chicago to the Pacific Coast.
The first Command has six Provinces; the second, four. Each Province has
from three to nine Divisions, and each Division contains a number of
Corps. Thus, while each Corps is complete in itself, the general
administration is very highly centralized; so much so, that an order
from General Booth at the National Headquarters, London, England, must
be obeyed by every Corps in the world.
While the organization of the Spiritual Department was taking place in
this manner, the Social Work was assuming large proportions, and
differentiating itself. Visitation in the lower parts of the cities was
organized into a regular department of Slum Work, called the Slum
Department, with a specialized corps of officers. Work among fallen
women was instituted as the Rescue Department, with its rescue homes and
trained workers. The establishment of hotels and lunch counters for both
men and women became finally what is now the Social Department. The wood
yards and small factories, together with the salvage depots and cheap
stores, were organized into the Industrial Department. Work among the
children resulted in the establishment of kindergartens and orphanages.
The colonization enterprise took root, and was divided into the
industrial colonies and farm colonies. Thus, we have here a
differentiation of the original Social Department into six distinct
divisions, which we shall consider separately in this treatise. As these
lines of work advanced, although each had its special group of workers,
it was natural that the work should follow the administrative system of
Commands, Provinces, Divisions and Corps, which had already been marked
out in the Spiritual Department.
The third primary division, that of trade, has had some interesting
developments. There is, for example, the trade carried on in articles
necessary to the members of the Army themselves, and which they cannot
conveniently obtain in the open market, such as uniforms, badges, books
and musical instruments. The Reliance Trading Company, for instance, was
incorporated in 1902, under the laws of the State of New Jersey. This
company owns and publishes the "War Cry," the official gazette of the
Army in the United States; does the printing for the various departments
of the Army; manufactures fountain pens; makes uniforms, bonnets and
hats for the Army members; conducts an Insurance Department, and carries
on other business enterprises.[4]
There is, too, the trade in the products of the various factories and
industries connected with the relief work of the Army. For example, the
Salvation Army Industrial Homes Company, incorporated in New Jersey, has
greatly facilitated the industrial work in the United States. There have
been companies formed and organized as building societies, insurance
companies, and a Salvation Army Bank.
In all these companies the Salvation Army, through its officers, always
has control, although it invites and seeks investments from the public.
The following extract, taken from a prospectus sent out by the Salvation
Army Industrial Homes Company, illustrates the point:
"The Charter of our Industrial Homes Co. has been prepared by
Messrs. Jas. B. Dill & Co., the eminent corporation lawyers, who
have kindly given us the full benefit of their skill and experience,
at a fairly nominal charge. The capital consists of $500,000.00,
divided into 50,000 shares, of the par value of $10.00 each, of
which 25,000 are in 6% cumulative preferred stock and 25,000 in
common stock. Only the preferred shares are offered to the public,
and bear interest at 6%, which is guaranteed by the Army. The common
shares are held by the Army, with a view to retaining the control of
the company, and the entire profits, over and above the interest on
the preferred stock, are thus devoted to the charitable and
religious work of the Army, and help us to continually expand and
enlarge our homes." ... "We shall be happy to supply any information
or answer any questions as to the financial standing of the
Salvation Army. For our spiritual and social operations in the
United States, we have now an annual income of nearly $2,000,000.00,
while the value of our real estate holdings in this country amount
to about $1,500,000. Hence, it will be seen that in guaranteeing the
interest upon these preferred shares, amounting in all to only
$15,000.00, we are abundantly able to insure the regular payment of
the same apart, altogether, from the income of our industrial
homes."
As a result of this rapid growth along the three lines described, the
movement everywhere forced itself upon public recognition. The
publication of its weekly organ, the "War Cry," in many different
languages and countries aided its growth. Other magazines of higher
class and better quality were issued. At the same time, the public press
investigated the organization, and for a long time criticised it
harshly. In fact, during all this time, while so successful, the Army
suffered much persecution. The crowds of people composed of those whom
it was seeking to benefit, seemed often to be its worst enemies, and
then, to make matters more difficult, the police, we are told, instead
of furnishing protection, often, themselves, joined in the persecution.
There were many instances, in this early period, where the enthusiastic
reformers were ill treated and even fatally injured. There was, however,
some reason for all this persecution. A movement so sudden and
apparently so contrary to existing institutions, needed time for its
real principle to become known. The external manifestation seemed to
consist of nothing but defiant disregard of established religious custom
and ceremonial. Thus, while the vital principle of love for humanity was
working its way into individual lives and attracting them to the ranks
of the organization, the world at large openly showed its antagonism.
Gradually, however, the sense of public opposition and antagonism grew
less. Gradually the knowledge that, behind the superficial emotionalism,
were depths of disinterested sympathy for fellow men and women worked
itself into the public mind. Attacks on Army groups on street corners
became less frequent, and when they did occur, were suppressed by the
police. The press ceased its bitter criticism.
It was about this time that renewed and increased attention was focused
on the new movement by the publication in 1890 of General Booth's famous
book, "In Darkest England, and the Way Out." In some ways the book
served to mark a new epoch in the development of that part of practical
sociology which concerns itself with the direct betterment of the lower
class of society. The old method of dealing with the poor is ably
described by Ruskin, when he says:
"We make our relief either so insulting to them, or so painful that
they rather die than take it at our hands; or, for third
alternative, we leave them so untaught and foolish, that they starve
like brute creatures, wild and dumb, not knowing what to do, or what
to ask."[5]
This was a point of view which in its relation to the degraded elements
of society was an expression of sympathy rather than of harsh criticism
and mistrust. Although it had been set forth by others previously, it
had never before forced itself so strongly on the public. In addition,
the daring statements and bold theories, given utterance in "Darkest
England," served to surprise all schools of reform. The public
consciousness had never before faced the problem in such a way. It was
aroused, and began to ask questions. The book ran through edition after
edition. It was printed in a cheap form and within a short time was
circulated all over the civilized world.
In his "scheme" General Booth laid down seven fundamental principles,
which he claimed were essential to success. They were as follows:
1. The first principle that must be bore in mind, as governing every
scheme that may be put forward, is that it must change the man, when it
is his character and conduct which constitute the reasons for his
failure in the battle of life.
2. The remedy, to be effectual, must change the circumstances of the
individual, when they are the cause of his wretched condition, and lie
beyond his control.
3. Any remedy worthy of consideration must be on a scale commensurate
with the evil with which it proposes to deal.
4. Not only must the scheme be large enough, but it must be permanent.
5. But while it must be permanent, it must be made practicable.
6. The indirect features of the scheme must not be such as to produce
injury to the persons whom we seek to benefit.
7. While assisting one class of the community, it must not seriously
interfere with the interests of another.[6]
General Booth's personal attitude, also, is well worth noting. In the
preface of his book he makes the following statement:
"I do not claim that my scheme is either perfect in its details, or
complete in the sense of being adequate to combat all forms of
gigantic evils, against which it is, in the main, directed. Like
other human things, it must be perfected through suffering; but it
is a sincere endeavor to do something, and to do it on principles,
which can be instantly applied and universally developed."[7]
And again, in view of some of the manifestations of the organization as
we see it, the following is interesting, as coming from its founder. He
says: "But one of the grimmest social problems of our time should be
sternly faced, not with a view to the generation of profitless emotions,
but with a view to its solution."[8]
Upon the publication of this book there arose a division of opinion in
regard to the scheme which was set forth. On the one hand, numbers of
noted philanthropists aided General Booth with money and moral support.
On the other hand, there was opposition from a certain class of
reformers, headed by that eminent scientist, Thomas Huxley. This
opposition, however, did not so much attack the principles advocated,
as the agency for their application, namely, the Salvation Army, itself,
characterized in Huxley's words as "Autocratic socialism, masked by its
theological exterior."[9]
From that time to the present many thoughtful men have continued this
opposition to the Army as an agent of social service. Further on we
shall consider the validity and strength of their arguments. At that
time the press on all sides took up the controversy, and it was finally
decided to appoint a committee of investigation to thoroughly examine
the Army's methods and institutions and publish a report. This committee
was composed of some of the leading business and public men of England,
headed by Sir Wilfred Lawson. They examined the books of the Army and
studied the system and methods of the movement. They reported that all
was entirely satisfactory and not only so, but that the movement and
work was worthy of commendation.[10]
The report of this Committee, together with a demonstration of the work
already accomplished, served to silence the critics to some extent, and
public favor began to turn toward the movement. Since that period the
Army has had, generally speaking, the support of the press and many of
the leading men throughout the world, a support which it has not been
slow to recognize, or to utilize. For instance, about this time, we find
the following appeal issued through the English press:
"From personal witness or credible report of what General Booth has
done with the funds entrusted to him for the Social Scheme which he
laid before the country eighteen months ago, we think it would be a
serious evil if the great task which he has undertaken should be
crippled by lack of help during the next four months. We therefore
venture to recommend his work to the generous support of all, who
feel the necessity for some serious and concentrated effort to
grapple with the needs of the most wretched and destitute, who have
so long been the despair of our legislation and our philanthropy."
This appeal was signed by the Earl of Aberdeen, who was then
Governor-General of Canada, and fifteen other men and women of
international reputation. As an example of the attitude of the press, we
find the London Daily Telegraph, in the midst of a long editorial
entitled, "The General's Triumph," saying, "There is no question about
it, the General has become popular. He has justified himself by results.
We are told he has not shown the way out, but few have done so much to
let the light in, and to bring with it life and healing."[11] Since the
publication of "In Darkest England" in 1890, the social work of the Army
has been extended, and has grown very rapidly.[12]
In connection with this rapid growth, the social phase of the movement
has tended to eclipse the spiritual in the public eye. The Army has
taken advantage of this to advertise its advancement along all lines,
and there is reason for believing that the public support of the whole
movement, both social and spiritual, at the present time, is largely due
to this advertising.[13] In any case, the social work of the Army is a
movement large enough to justify the interest of the public, and the
extensive study of every student of practical social economy.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] "Social Relief Work of the Salvation Army in the U. S.," p. 5.
[3] "Life of William Booth," p. 57.
[4] "Social Relief Work of the S. A. in the U. S."
[5] "Sesame and Lillies," p. 101. Cf. also "The New Movement in
Charity," Am. Jour. Soc. III, p. 596.
[6] "In Darkest England," pp. 85-87.
[7] _Ibid._, preface.
[8] _Ibid._, p. 15.
[9] "Social Diseases and Worse Remedies."
[10] "The committee of 1902 which inquired into certain aspects of the
Darkest England Scheme two years after its initiation, were careful to
state that they did not enter upon any consideration of the many
economic questions affecting the maintenance of the system sought to be
carried out." (The Salvation Army and the Public, p. 121.)
[11] "London Daily Telegraph," July 6, 1904.
[12] In fifteen years, from 1890 to 1905, the social work grew from a
few small scattered institutions, to 687 institutions, many of which
alone would have greater accommodation than the total in 1890.
[13] See "The S. A. and the Public," ch. 3.
CHAPTER I.
THE SALVATION ARMY INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT.
Originally the work now known as the Industrial Work was handled with
and under the same management as the Social Work, but as the movement
grew, the Industrial Work branched out and finally became separate in
operation and management, the name "Social Department" being retained
for the hotel work only.
The Industrial Department itself may be divided into three sections, all
under the same management. These are The Industrial Home, The Industrial
Store and The Industrial Colony. The object of the work embraced in
these three divisions as stated in the prospectus sent out by the Army
two years ago is:
"One of the most difficult problems that has confronted the
Salvation Army has been the finding of employment for out-of-works
and human derelicts in our cities. A system has been gradually
organized by which this human waste is employed in collecting the
material waste of the city. This latter has been sorted, sifted and
sold, and temporary employment thus afforded to thousands of
stranded persons, who have thus been tided over periods of distress,
relieved of immediate suffering, saved from the stigma of paupers,
assured of human sympathy, and given a new start in life."[14]
After a careful review of the various divisions of this work, above
mentioned, we shall consider whether the object is being attained, and
of what value the work done is to society.
In the formation of the Industrial Home the ideal building and situation
cannot always be secured; hence there are differences in the planning
and disposition of the different homes. The general plan, however, is to
have a three or four-story building fitted up as follows: On the ground
floor is a space where the wagons filled with waste materials can
unload, a large room where furniture can be repaired and stored (unless
this is done in the basement below), an office, and another large room
to be used for a retail store. On the second floor is the sorting room,
and adjoining or connected with it is the baling room, where such stuff
as paper, rags and excelsior is pressed, ready to be taken away. On this
floor, too, is to be found the kitchen, the dining room and the reading
room. On the third floor are situated the dormitories and sleeping
rooms. This plan is often varied. Sometimes there is a basement and only
one or two stories above. Sometimes, as in the Forty-eighth Street home
in New York, there are six or seven stories, and sometimes, as in one
home in Chicago, the sleeping and living quarters of the men are
entirely separate from the warehouse where they work, possibly some
blocks away. The kitchen is nearly always found to be large and
furnished with a good range and other facilities. The dining room
contains long, plain tables, set so that the men can sit on both sides.
The dishes are of thick, strong ware. The food is plain but good.
Everything from the floor to the dishes is usually clean.
The sleeping rooms are of two kinds, individual rooms and dormitories.
Those men who are of a better rank, that is, those who have been working
long, or who are doing a higher grade of work, and those who have "boss"
positions, occupy the separate rooms; while the general class of workers
sleep in the dormitories. When it comes to the question of pure air,
considerable difficulty arises. Some of the separate rooms have no
outside window, though the partitions between the rooms rise only to a
certain height, thus giving common air to the whole floor. Even where
good ventilation facilities exist, it seems difficult to make the men
keep the windows open. As regards ventilation, however, the industrial
homes are, as a rule, better than the lower class workingman's hotels,
and are improving in this respect. The beds are iron, single beds. The
bed clothing and the rooms themselves are clean and fumigated regularly.
A reading room is also provided where daily papers and popular magazines
are kept, and where the men may write. In some cases, a smoking room
adjoins. Meetings of a devotional character, to which the men may come
or not as they see fit, are often held in the reading room.
The support that renders the industrial home possible is the waste
product of the city. This material is rubbish of all kinds imaginable.
In connection with each industrial plant are kept a number of horses and
wagons, mostly one-horse wagons. Each driver of a wagon has a definite
route to cover regularly. Passing over his route, he collects everything
of which people are glad to be rid. Waste paper, old clothes, old
furniture, and the like, are the principal articles he collects. Many
good people, persuaded of the good work the Army is doing, save up their
store of odds and ends until the Army wagon shall call, often giving
things away which they would not have thrown away or given any one else,
unless it would be to sell them to an old-clothes man. The driver
returns with his load to the warehouse. From his wagon the material is
conveyed by means of an elevator to the sorting room in the second
story, whence the greater quantity goes at once to the baling machine in
the form of waste paper. Any articles that may be of use, such as shoes,
clothing of any kind, books, crockery-ware, bottles, pots, kettles,
etc., are placed in their respective bins and finally, repaired, find
their way to the retail store. Heavy articles, such as stoves and
furniture, do not go up in the elevator, but are retained on the first
floor, where they go, first to the repairing and storage room, and then
out to the stores. The paper and rags, when baled, are sold to the
nearest paper mill for a good price. Some idea of the amount of this
class of material may be gained from the fact that the average amount of
paper sold by the Industrial Department in the United States is about
2,500 tons per month.
In England and other countries this work has not assumed such large
proportions, but there is some difference between the workings of the
industrial plant in the City of London and in New York. For instance,
at the Salvation Army plant on Hanbury Street, Whitechapel, London, we
found, in 1906, a planing mill, a paint and furniture shop, a mattress
factory, and a sawmill and cabinet shop. This place had employment for
ninety men, of whom twelve were regularly employed and the remainder
were transients. The regular employees were paid at a union rate of
wages. The men of this industrial plant lived some distance away on
Quaker Street, having possession of part of the Salvation Army shelter
or hotel there, the total accommodation of which was two hundred and
forty. Again, in a different part of the city, over near Deptford, was a
wood yard with good machinery, run by electricity, which employed
anywhere from sixty to seventy men making kindling wood. On the other
hand, at the "Spa Road Elevator," was a plant almost identical with the
industrial plants in the United States, where were shipped out an
average of 100 pounds of paper every week and several tons of rags in
addition, and where was accommodation for some two hundred men.
Branching out from the main industrial plant are nearly always to be
found large stores. These are Salvation Army retail stores. These stores
are found in the poorest sections of the city, and are patronized by the
poorest class. Articles of all descriptions may be purchased here at a
very low figure. In each store is a furniture department; a clothing
department for men, women and children; a toy department; a department
for stoves, pots, etc., and sometimes other departments varying with the
size of the store. It is possible, thus, for a poor family moving into
the neighborhood to completely furnish themselves and their home from
Salvation Army stores at a cost of often less than one-half of what they
would pay elsewhere. Each store has a definite connection with the
central industrial plant, from which it receives its supplies, its
workers and its government, for the stores are merely branches of the
central work, and all are under the same general management.
An interesting feature lies in an examination of the labor which is
employed. From the cases given at the end of the chapter, it will be
seen that it consists of all kinds, classes and nationalities, who,
through their own recklessness, or by unfortunate circumstances, have
fallen into want. A man willing to work comes to the Army in want of
food and shelter, and the Army happens to have accommodation for him. He
may go to one of the men's hotels or to the industrial home, or to the
central agency of the Army. In any case he will probably be interviewed
by an officer specially detailed for the purpose, who will be able to
decide in short time what his needs are, and what can be done for him.
He may be sent out at once to take some position secured through the
employment bureau; he may be sent to the hotel with the understanding
that, after being fed and cared for, he will be given an opportunity to
pay for it in work; or he may be sent straight to the industrial home.
In any case, if possible, he is put to work. He may be in a weak
condition physically or mentally, or both, but even then, he can often
do something; such, for example, as picking over paper and rags in the
sorting room. Meanwhile, he is being fed and housed. If he means well
and works earnestly, he is soon able to do some other grade of work. He
may have had technical knowledge which will help him. In a few days,
possibly, a call is made to the employment bureau, which is maintained
in conjunction with each home or group of homes, for a man to fill some
position. If suitable, this man may be sent out to take it. On the other
hand, he may be retained in the home and employed permanently as a
driver on one of the wagons, or as overseer and instructor in one of the
rooms, or he may be sent out as assistant to one of the stores, and, in
time, he may be given charge of a store. When the men first come to the
home, they receive board and clothing and some remuneration, although
very slight. If they continue to work at the home, they are paid wages
ranging from $1.00 per week up to $4.00 or $5.00 per week, besides
board and lodging in the United States, and from 1s. to 9s. in England.
When a man is able, but is lazy and not willing to work, he is turned
out. It is well known to those who have studied the question, that there
are a large number of such men, but this class does not apply for help
as often as it might to the Army, as it soon learns the uselessness of
so doing. The officers become quite adept in seeing these men in their
true colors. On the other hand, if a man drops into bad habits and goes
off on a spree after he has been helped, he will be taken in again
afterwards, and this is continued within reason. Much of the labor
employed is a surface and floating population, the result of season and
periodic work in connection with so many of our industries, and the men
are just tided over a hard time in their experiences. This class is
larger sometimes than at others, but is always in evidence. Another
class, however, consists of the men who have fallen through their own
recklessness and bad habits. Some of these men are sent out to positions
which they fill creditably, and finally rise as high or higher than they
were before. Naturally, the Army makes as much as possible out of these
cases for the purpose of advertisement. Owing to evident difficulties,
it is impossible to ascertain just what percentage there is of this
class among the total number helped, or what percentage of this class
itself is successfully aided. The industrial work itself, as a paying
business, is developing so fast that a constantly increasing number of
men are permanently retained and used as regular employees, being paid
regular wages.
When we come to the industrial colony, we find it entirely different
from the farm colony, where families are sent to settle upon the land in
tracts of say twenty acres per family. The industrial colony is managed
like a large farm with many laborers, all under one central head. The
original idea was to graduate men from the city plants to the industrial
colonies and thence to the farm colonies, but the Army has had
difficulty in maintaining its colonies at all, and, as a result, no
regular system has been followed. A large proportion of the men on the
industrial colony are single, whereas, as will be seen, families are
needed for the farm colonies. Again, many of these men are not the kind
who will succeed on the farm colony. Sometimes, too, they have not been
through the city plant, and sometimes they are men sent directly from
the city to get them out of temptations which are too strong for them.
The best example of an industrial colony is the one at Hadleigh, about
thirty miles from London, England. This colony has an area of about
3,000 acres. One thousand acres is almost useless now; and when taken by
the Army in 1890, the whole consisted of almost worthless land, some of
which, as a result of constant labor and fertilization, has been
transformed into reasonably good land. A great draw-back and a great
expense has been the lack of water, now partially supplied by two
artesian wells, the cheaper of which cost over $20,000.00.[15] The
population varies from 300 to 700.[16] In 1898, 775 men were admitted to
the colony. Out of this number, 193 left after a short residence before
they could be influenced for good; 47 were discharged as incorrigible,
and 309 graduated, obtaining situations or being restored to their
friends.[17] There are three classes received at the colony:
1. Those sent by the Army agencies.
2. Those sent by poor law authorities who pay from 5s. to 10s. per week
for periods of from three to twelve months for their maintenance.
3. Special cases sent by philanthropic societies, or by relatives or
others.[18]
Another division is made into four classes, thus:
1. Those coming and passing off in a month, not being regular colonists.
2. Those averaging nine months on the colony, and called colonists.
3. Picked men from the second class, who are made employees.
4. Employees hired in the neighborhood for specific purposes.[19]
The proportion of each, according to either specification, is such a
variable quantity that nothing can be determined satisfactorily.
According to one officer's statement, about one in every five is
considered an employee.[20] In the winter of 1903-4, 209 men were sent
to Hadleigh and supported there by a special fund, called "The Mansion
House Fund for the Relief of the London Unemployed."[21] Out of the
class sent by the Army agencies to the colony, a certain number are sent
out as emigrants to Canada. For instance, in 1905, 41 were sent out, and
in 1906, 58. The party of 58 was composed of five Irishmen, one
Welshman, three Scotchmen, and forty-nine Englishmen. These men go to
work on different farms in Canada, and some sent out in previous years
now have homesteads there. In the colony there are five departments,
viz.: the market garden, the brick-making department, the dairy
department together with the piggery, the poultry department, and the
Inebriate's Home. There is also a store which has an income of $1,000.00
a month. The market garden is one of the best industries, most of the
produce being sold in the town of Southend, four miles distant. In the
busy season, as many as 100 workers are found in this department. There
are four large conservatories, especially for tomatoes and flowers. A
good many potatoes are raised, and there is a good deal of land in
berries and orchard. There are three brick-yards with the latest
improved kilns and machinery. These yards have been a very heavy expense
and have not been satisfactory. For instance, in 1898, the year's sale
of bricks amounted to £4717, while the expenditure of this department
was £5563, this latter sum including the expense of repairing the drying
fields, which that year were injured by a flood.[22] In the dairy
department about twenty-five head of cattle provide the colony with milk
and butter, while sometimes milk is sold at Southend. In the piggery the
number of hogs runs from 200 to 500. The poultry department is given
over to prize poultry breeding and has been successful in winning some
noted prizes. The Inebriate's Home is licensed for twenty male
inebriates who are charged from 25s. to 30s. per week. Between 60% and
70% are stated to be reclaimed after an average period of eight months'
treatment. In addition to these departments it might be noted that there
is a school on the colony with an attendance of 100, some of whom come
from outside the colony, and a good sized hall, seating about 400, where
gatherings are held for social and religious purposes.
For the feeding and lodging of the colonists, large preparations are
made. They are graded according to their position in the colony, and an
opportunity is given them to rise from the lower to the higher grades.
The superintendent stated that this plan was found useful in stimulating
ambition. There are two dormitories, both clean and well-kept, but the
higher grade with better bedding and surroundings than the lower. This
grading system is also maintained in the dining room, the higher grade
of colonists being served with better food than the lower. Everything
around the buildings is well-kept and orderly, and the general moral
atmosphere of the colony seems to be healthful and up-lifting.
The industrial colony at Ft. Herrick, near Cleveland, Ohio, differs in
many ways from the one at Hadleigh, and doubtless has been instrumental
in aiding a good number of outcast and fallen men, but it has been such
a burden financially, and such an unsolved problem in many ways, that it
may be considered a failure. The reason for its failure is not so much
bad management as lack of foresight on the part of those choosing the
site. The site is in no sense suitable for a colony, the soil being
unfit for intensive farming. Probably the best work done there has been
the reformation of drunkards, a work in which, according to reports, the
colony has been eminently successful.[23]
Coming now to the management of the Industrial Department in the United
States, we find that it is an up-to-date business enterprise. The
department is controlled by a corporation called "The Salvation Army
Industrial Homes Co." already referred to in our introduction.[24] The
management of the company is in the hands of the Army.[25] Under this
central authority, we find the United States divided into three
districts; the eastern district, with headquarters at New York; the
central district with headquarters at Cleveland, and the western
district with headquarters at Chicago. Each one of these districts has
at its head a social secretary, and under him are the different officers
in charge of the respective plants. Generally speaking, each local
officer is supreme in his individual plant. He can adopt methods and
means to suit the environment of his district, provided always that his
methods mean success. There are no iron-clad rules to hold him in check
beyond a system of bookkeeping and of making out detailed reports, which
must be sent to headquarters. When about to engage in some new venture,
however, such as securing a new location for his plant, opening up a
store, or renting or purchasing new property, he must refer the project
to his superior officer, before undertaking it. The local officer in
charge has trusted employees under him, such as a warehouse boss, a
kitchen boss, and stable boss, etc., each of whom is responsible to the
officer for his department.
Although present to some extent in other countries the special field of
the industrial work is the United States. The growth in this country
during the recent years has been great. In 1896 there were no regular
industrial homes; in 1904 there were 49 industrial institutions, and in
control of these 49 institutions, there were 70 Army officers and 820
regular employees. The accommodation was about 1,100. During one month
there were 225 cases that were considered unsatisfactory. There were 239
horses and wagons in daily use. About 1,000 tons of paper were baled and
sold per month. Contrast this with the year 1907. In this year there
were 84 officers engaged in these institutions and over 1,200 regular
employees. There was accommodation for 1,651 men. The unsatisfactory
cases for the year amounted to 1,389. There were 460 horses and wagons
in daily use. An average of 2,500 tons of paper was sold each month.
16,875 men were placed in outside positions during the year. No large
city in the United States is without this industrial work, and it is to
be expected that, within a few years, there will be no city in the
country with a population of 100,000 that does not have an industrial
home, and that many cities with a smaller population will have one also.
Already there are several cities with a population of less than 50,000
that have promising industrial plants. In London, the growth has not
been so rapid, and the industrial institutions are run at a loss to the
Army, but there are about eight industrial plants in that city, and
others are to be found in other large cities of England.
We come now to the question of the value of the Salvation Army
industrial work to society. From the preceding brief outline of the
methods, material, labor, management and extent of the industrial work,
it will be seen that it is a movement, unrestricted in scope, with an
unlimited field of development as an economic enterprise. In certain
fields where the Army is active, its work is considered of little or no
value; but as a result of our investigation into this particular field,
the conclusion is reached that, with the exception of the industrial
colonies, it is a practical, social work, of value to society.
We make an exception of the industrial colonies because we do not
consider that the two experiments already tried by the Army justify
their own continuance or the starting of other similar colonies. The
reference here is to Fort Herrick in Ohio, and the Hadleigh Colony, near
London. These colonies have necessitated a continual sinking of funds
contributed by the charitable public, and the return does not justify
their expense. The Army should realize this, and admit the fact, instead
of drawing wool over the eyes of the ignorant public by the constant
reiteration of "the great work done at Hadleigh and Fort Herrick." It
looks as though the organization was afraid that the infallibility and
sanctity of General Booth's pet scheme would be seriously impaired, if
the public should discover that any part of that scheme was a mistake
and an unfortunate experiment, and that, for this reason, it has
continued to expend much money on it, which might have been turned to
better advantage in connection with other parts of General Booth's plan.
These colonies are object lessons showing what is unwise to attempt,
rather than what can be done. The Army has no need to be ashamed of
having made a mistake, and its usefulness along other lines is
sufficient to maintain its reputation in spite of the failure of its
industrial colonies. There is no need of the industrial colony anyway.
The object in view is either to tide workless men over a period of hard
times and misfortune, or to restore manhood where evil habits and
recklessness have destroyed it, and this can be done and is being done
by means of the city industrial work without the aid of the colony. As
regards the work of reforming the inebriate, in which the industrial
colonies have had some success, that could be carried on without the
great expense of a regular colony.
The moral field of the city industrial work derives support from the
relation of its management to the spiritual work and influence of the
Army. The influence and spirit of the whole organization runs to a
certain extent through every branch of its varied developments. This
influence cannot be described by comparative means. The spirit, somewhat
unique in itself, runs through everything, a spirit which is a mixture
and blending of love, gratitude, service and patience. While we think
that, in the tendency of this branch to become a business enterprise,
there is a considerable decrease in the influence just described, it
still has great power. The officers and employees now engaged in this
work were themselves not long since outcasts in society. Many of them
had despaired of ever making a success of life and were simply drifting.
But a helping hand had been stretched out to them, hope had been
imparted and new ideals had been placed before them. They might even yet
be men, wear decent clothes, stand up straight and look their fellow men
in the eye! What wonder that the decent clothes to which they looked
forward turned out to be the uniform of the organization which had
picked them up from the gutter! What wonder they felt an eternal debt of
gratitude toward that organization! While this is not a true expression
of their attitude in every case, and while there are some who hold their
positions simply because they can get no better, loyalty to the work
exists in enough instances to create a distinct moral atmosphere. The
men wish to make a success of their new work; they wish to see the Army
advance, and to do this they feel that it is essential that the same
moral influence which enabled them to become men should be continued.
This influence moves almost unconsciously among the industrial plants.
For instance, we do not find here the tendency to obscenity which we
find in any ordinary factory or workshop. Environment in these plants is
all-powerful as an uplifting condition. Cleanliness is encouraged in the
dormitory and kitchen. Respectful attention is paid at meals while grace
is being said. The reading room is frequented, while the occasional
meetings held are sometimes well attended and sometimes not, according
to the attraction. The emotional religious element is a great deal in
evidence, though not so much as in other departments of the Army. In
any case, the element of hope and ambition, which often arises within
these social outcasts, making them men once more, is to be considered a
great moral asset. The moral influence is due more to the personality of
those in charge than to anything else. A large number of the managers
have served in connection with the Army's spiritual work and have the
desire, as they would tell you, to see every man under them "saved," not
only in a moral and social sense, but "saved" in accordance with the
Army's special significance of that term.[26] While the Army's special
idea of salvation may have no value in itself, still if the emotional
element assists in the moral and social salvation of individuals, we
have no reason for not tolerating it unless it has evil effects of real
importance. Such effects, however, tend to decrease, as the movement
advances, and the education and enlightenment of the masses increase.
From an economic point of view, we believe that the work of the
Industrial Department has been successful. We have seen that large
numbers of men, who are out of work, are taken in by this department and
kept for a number of weeks or months, and that, during this time,
besides making their own support, and gaining in efficiency, in many
cases, they are able to return to a more important part in production.
Let us see what this means. While these men are out of work, they are
not producing anything. They are idle, and thus a loss to the community.
In addition, they are fast losing any potential ability for production,
which they have had. But they now become producers, a gain to the
community, and their potential ability for production is at least
conserved if not increased. Secondly, out-of-work men are a burden on
the community. While they continue to live without employment, they must
be supported in some way or other by private or public charity, and they
form a great item of expense to the community. But in the hands of the
Industrial Department, they cease being an expense to the public and
become to some extent a gain. Thirdly, some of these men are in danger
of becoming members of pseudo-social and anti-social classes; it is from
them that the pauper and criminal classes gain recruits. But through the
elevating environment of this branch of the Army's work, their character
is affected, and they are raised to a higher level. In this way then, in
successful cases, the worthless men become workmen. Worthless men are
changed into economic assets. The dependents become independent. Working
by means of the laws of environment and association, the Army elevates
the degenerate from a pseudo-social and anti-social class to a higher
level and to social position. Where individuality was lost, independence
of character reasserts itself.
Let us consider in detail some of the advantages connected with this
form of practical philanthropy. One advantage is, that once started, the
work continues and increases without further expenditure on the part of
the charitably disposed public beyond the giving away of things for
which they have no further use. This is so because the Army here in its
work becomes an efficient producer and creates articles which have
market value. Leaving all charity alone, the work is paying and more
than self-supporting, and thus in a short time will be reimbursed with
all the money which was necessary to initiate it. In nearly every city
in which the work was started, rented property soon gives place to
property owned by the Army and poor ill-suited buildings, to up-to-date
structures built for the purpose. An example of this is to be found in
the history of the 48th Street Industrial Home in New York City which is
briefly described, in the examples given at the end of this chapter.[27]
That the entire work has grown self-supporting in the United States is
shown by the fact that last year, 1907, there was a net gain of $21,000,
after the interest on the loans and investments had been paid. If a home
does not show signs of being successful financially, its location will
be changed or it will be discontinued.[28]
Another advantage lies in the fact that men who were socially dependent
are made self-supporting. We should place emphasis on the effect on the
man himself as well as on the community. We saw how these men were given
to understand that they were earning their own livelihood and were not
recipients of charity, and how they were encouraged by the receipt of
wages, to be increased as their productiveness increased. The relief
given is true relief in that the man earns it himself and realizes this
fact, and because, along with this realization, comes a return of
manhood and independence. Of course if men have lost all manhood and
have no desire to be independent, but simply to live as easily as
possible on what may be given them, the above is not the result; but few
such get into the industrial homes, as they know better and have no wish
to work as these men do, and if they get in temporarily, they are soon
sorted out. Thus it cannot be said of these homes as is said of many
institutions, that they pauperize men in place of helping them. The
institution that makes men work for everything they get and provides
some sort of channel for their ambition, maintaining itself meanwhile as
a paying concern, is not pauperizing in its tendency.
Still another advantage of this work is found in the saving of the
community's funds. Of late years, more and more, the principle has been
advanced and brought before the public, that the starving and unemployed
are to be cared for in some way, and we are willing to tax ourselves to
provide for this. As far back as the census of 1890, we find that the
United States spent annually $40,000,000 in charities and over
$12,000,000 in penal and reformatory institutions. Probably the total
expenditure for these two objects to-day would be nearer $60,000,000
annually. What percentage of this $60,000,000 would go to the class of
people aided by the Army industrial work would be hard to ascertain or
approximate, but there is room for a great extension of this kind of
work, and the Army's efforts are most suggestive. In some of the
European countries, especially Germany, many helpful experiments along
this line are in progress, but conditions in the United States are
vastly different. In any case social economists are agreed that vast
sums are spent annually in our country to little or no purpose from the
point of view of social relief. In the year 1907, 8,696 men were cared
for in the United States industrial homes of the Army. This means just
that amount of saving to the nation that it would have cost the regular
municipal and state charities to have dealt with these 8,696 men, since
these men were aided by a self-supporting organization and paid for
their own support. This work, then, if carried far enough, would effect
quite a saving of taxes.
But along with advantages there may be disadvantages. Some objections
have been raised to this branch of the Army's work. For instance, it is
stated that industries entered into by the Army tend to hurt economic
conditions with regard to both wages and prices.[29] With regard to
wages it is urged that the Army will keep for its industries, workers in
constraint of one kind or another, paying them a lower wage than the
same workers could procure outside, and thus lowering the wages in the
respective industries. We do not consider this objection a strong one.
Let us forget for the present the philanthropic side of the industrial
work, and look on it as a distinctly economic enterprise, as a factor of
production. We think it quite likely that a manager, anxious above
everything else to make his institution a financial success, would make
an endeavor to keep as long as possible, and at as low wages as
possible, men who could receive more on the outside. He might even try
to retain men for whom he could secure better positions through the
employment bureau, if he needed their services, and times were so good
that no other applicant offered to take their place, but this he could
not succeed in doing to any serious extent; for, in the first place, the
restraint exercised over the men is very slight, and secondly, if the
men could secure better wages, it would not be long before they found it
out and left the home voluntarily. It would be just the same as in any
industry in which most of the workers are ignorant. They would remain
under low wages just as long as their ignorance and lack of initiative
would allow, but sooner or later the relatively able man would seek the
best wage. Hence the able man would seek the best wage, and his place
would be taken by one, possibly morally and physically unable to procure
any wage, or, in other words, belonging to the unemployable class. If it
should come to the point of the Army's hiring able men to carry on the
work without aiding the outcasts, it must compete in the market for them
and pay the market price. The only real danger would lie in the Army's
industrial work securing a strong enough position in some industry to be
able to dictate terms to labor in an industry, but this is so unlikely
as to be almost irrelevant and even in such an almost inconceivable
case, the danger would be only temporary. Labor would still be able to
drift sufficiently to another agency, not controlled by the Army and
thus bring up wages again. This is the more true in that any industry,
in which the Army engages, must of necessity be one in which unskilled
labor is competent.[30] In addition to this, from personal
investigation, we can state that a large part of the labor employed in
these plants of the Army is at any rate temporarily inefficient labor
and would not have much chance in securing employment elsewhere.
Finally, though considered a charitable work, this branch of the army
is, as already stated, a corporation, a business enterprise financed by
investors who receive interest on their investments; hence, to the same
extent that it is a financial enterprise, like other such enterprises,
it will be governed by the rate of wages.[31]
Another objection has been raised by critics, to the effect that the
Army, through its industry, enters into competition with existing firms
and companies to the harm of the latter.[32] For instance they urge that
in the case of those engaged in second-hand goods and salvage, who are
able to make a profit by buying their material, the army enters into an
unfair competition, when it takes such material, given in charity, and
sells at a lower figure. In so far as the army does undersell others
this objection is valid, and we have no doubt that in some cases such is
the truth. Doubtless some individuals and firms have been hurt in their
business by this under-selling. For instance, in Chicago, the Army has
nine retail stores situated in the poorer districts, doing a big
business in second hand goods. In addition to those goods it sends into
the retail trade, it sells hundreds of tons of paper and rags annually.
This must have some effect on others engaged in this business. However,
the Army itself sometimes pays for its material and does not often
undersell.[33] But there is another side to this question of
underselling. Naturally the tendency is to get as much as possible for
its goods, and provided there is a market, the army would seek to obtain
just as much as any one else in the business. It now falls back on a
question of supply and demand. The only way in which the price would be
lowered by the Salvation Army would be by an increase of supply.
Doubtless the supply of these goods is increased by the thorough work of
the Army agents, and, to such an extent, its entrance into this field
would tend to lower prices. However, in the leading salvage industries
of the army, the increase in supply does no more than offset the
increase in demand. The amount of displacement of the salvage and allied
industries due to the competition of the army at present would not seem
to be much, although of course it is difficult to get any exact figures
along this line.
Looking at the Salvation Army retail store as a form of relief, another
question arises as to whether the opportunity given to the residents of
the district to get things at the Salvation Army's store cheaper than
elsewhere interferes with the standard of living. By the standard of
living we mean the scale or measure of comfort and satisfaction which a
person or a community of persons regards as indispensable to
happiness.[34] This would differ in the case of different persons and
classes and communities, but progress demands that the standard should
never be lowered, but should always be raised, in accord with increasing
enlightenment and education.
"It is only," says Dr. Devine, "when individuals or individual
families for personal or exceptional or temporary reasons fall below
the standard, that charitable assistance can effectively intervene.
In other words, as has been pointed out in other connections, the
relieving policy cannot be made to raise the general standard of
living, but it should be so established as not to depress it"[35].
Here, then, the point is, whether those who are otherwise able to come
up to the standard of living in a given community take advantage of this
form of charity, or whether the customers of the Salvation Army's stores
are living below that standard. To just the extent that the former is
true, this part of the work would be pauperizing and retrogressive, but
we do not consider the former to be true. Naturally, we have no
statistics on this point, but speaking from general observation, we
should say that the customers of these stores are needy poor, who are
living below the standard, and hence, the store is a boon to them in
aiding them toward a realization of that standard.
Let us now sum up our conclusions regarding the industrial work of the
Army. Regarding the industrial colonies, we would say that, while
doubtless responsible for good and reformation in certain cases,
nevertheless, owing to their cost of maintenance and the fact that the
work can be done without them, they are not a practical form of charity
deserving the intelligent support of the public. Regarding the city
industrial work, including the employment, amid a good environment, of
men out of work, including also the turning of much otherwise waste
matter into an economic good, and the assistance of deserving poor by
means of second-hand stores, we would say that it is commendable and
deserving of support. This latter conclusion is made in spite of three
objections: first, that there is a tendency to lower wages, which
objection we do not consider as important for reasons given; second,
that underselling of certain commodities by the Army takes place, which
objection we admit to a limited extent, and third, that the standard of
living is interfered with, which objection we do not consider valid.
Examples of Men in the Army Industrial Homes.
These examples were collected by Mr. Jas. Ward at the two industrial
homes situated on West 19th Street and West 48th Street, New York City,
during the months of March and April, 1908. Mr. Ward worked right with
the men whose cases are given here, and slept in the homes, thus being
with them night and day. The home on West 19th Street was an old milk
depot rented temporarily by the Army to aid the unemployed during the
winter, and had accommodation for two hundred men. Everything was very
crude. The men slept on the floor, some without blankets. They were
required to work from three to five hours every day, and during the rest
of the day, they were allowed to go out and seek for work. The best of
these men were drafted out to fill the vacancies in the regular
industrial homes of the Army as they occurred. On the other hand, the
home on West 48th Street was and is one of the Army's best homes, built
for the purpose by the Army in 1907, at a cost of $130,000.00.
Everything here is arranged for comfort and cleanliness. The dormitory
is of the best, with good ventilation and other sanitary conditions. It
is a seven-story building, and has accommodation for one hundred and
seventy-five men. Twenty-two wagons are sent out from this home every
day. In every way it is a contrast with the West 19th Street home, hence
the examples will show some difference, according to which home they
refer.
No. 1.
Born in Ireland. Thirty-eight years old. Single. Had no trade. Had
worked on a farm in Ireland. Had been in this country fourteen years and
had worked somewhat on a farm in this country. Had been out of work two
months. Lost his position through an accident and spent three weeks in
the hospital. Had since been in the Army Industrial Home for five weeks,
and was growing stronger. His appearance was very good.
No. 2.
Born in France. Thirty-five years old. Single. Had people in France but
never heard from them. Had no trade. Out of work all winter. Worked on
a farm a little in France. In this country fifteen years. Several
charitable societies had helped him and he had been in the Industrial
Home eight days. The Army gave him clothing and shoes. He looked like a
drinking man, but otherwise capable.
No. 3.
Born in Italy. Thirty years old. Married. Had wife in Italy. Left there
two years ago, and said he was going to send for his wife when he got
the money. He had worked on a farm in Italy, and had worked at different
trades in this country. Had been out of work nine weeks. Had been in the
Industrial Home two days. Spoke good English. Looked dirty and without
much intelligence.
No. 4.
Born in South Carolina. Twenty-three years old. Single. Trade of a
plumber. Left his people five months ago and came to New York. Soon
spent his money and could find no work. Had been in the Industrial Home
three weeks. Said he was going home as soon as he could get the money.
Never worked on a farm. Looked capable.
No. 5.
Born in Germany. Forty-two years old. Single. Had been in this country
twenty-five years and had followed the water nearly all the time. Got in
a fight on the Bowery six months ago and spent five months in jail.
Since coming out, he had had odd jobs, and had been in the Industrial
Home about two weeks. Looked shiftless and dissipated.
No. 6.
Born in Denver, Colo. American parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
Had people in Philadelphia who did not help him. Machinist by trade.
Belonged to the union in Philadelphia. Out of work ten weeks. Said he
had $100.00 but it did not last long. Had been in the Industrial Home
two days and expected work shortly. Appearance was very good.
No. 7.
Born in Ireland. Forty years old. Married. Had left his family. Had no
trade. In this country eight years. Never worked in the country. Out of
work all winter. Spent three weeks in the hospital. Said he had
consumption. Had been in the Industrial Home four days. Looked very
feeble but not dissipated.
No. 8.
Born in New York. American parents. Twenty-six years old. Single. People
lived in New York, but he had not lived with them for three years. Had
no trade. Had travelled a little. Said he did not like hard work. Had
been in the Industrial Home two weeks. The Army gave him clothing and
shoes. Said the missions helped him. Expected to wander West when the
weather got warm. Looked like a tramp. Never worked in the country.
No. 9.
Born in San Francisco. German parents. Fifty-eight years old. Single.
Had no trade. Said he had beaten his way all around the world. Had not
worked all winter. In the Industrial Home ten days. Looked shiftless and
dissipated. Never worked in the country.
No. 10.
Born in Maine. English parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had
people in Maine with whom he quarreled. Had no trade. Out of work for
four months. In the Industrial Home one week. Never worked on a farm,
but had worked in the woods. Did not drink. Looked like a capable man.
No. 11.
Born in Philadelphia. Irish parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
People in Philadelphia who helped him sometimes. Had no trade. Had
wandered a good deal. Out of work three months. Said he drank whenever
he could get liquor. Expected to go home shortly. Had been in the
Industrial Home three days. Looked very shiftless and dissipated.
No. 12.
Born in Ireland. Forty-two years old. Single. Had two sisters in
Brooklyn who were poor. In this country eighteen years. Had no regular
trade but worked in hotels as porter. Out of work five months. Worked on
a farm a good deal in Ireland. Looked like a vagrant.
No. 13.
Born in New York. American parents. Twenty-two years old. Single. Said
he was a truck driver. Had been out of work one month. Drank sometimes.
Had been in the Industrial Home four days. Expected to leave New York as
soon as the weather became warmer. Looked very wild.
No. 14.
Born in Vermont. Mother Irish. Father German. Thirty-two years old.
Single. He wrote to his people but they did not help him. Had travelled
around a good deal. Had no trade. Said he "got saved" in a mission and
they kept him all winter. He said every time he got down, he went to the
missions and stayed as long as he could. Had been in the Industrial Home
nine days. Had worked on a farm a little. Looked like a vagrant.
No. 15.
Born in London. Twenty-two years old. Single. Seaman by trade. Left his
boat one month ago in New York and had done nothing since. Had been in
the Industrial Home two weeks and hoped to work his way back to England
shortly. His appearance was very good.
No. 16.
Born in New York. American parents. About thirty-five years old. Single.
Brick-layer by trade. Did not belong to the union. Out of work four
months. Said he had been to every city in the United States and had
travelled on freight trains quite often. Looked like a tramp.
No. 17.
Born in Reading, Penna. American parents. Forty years old. Married. Wife
dead. One child living with his sister in Pennsylvania. Carpenter by
trade. Did not belong to the union. Had been out of work all winter. All
his tools were in pawn. The Army had been helping him at times. Said he
had to leave his child on account of not working. He looked like a very
hard drinker. Had never worked in the country.
No. 18.
Born in Albany, N. Y. American parents. Thirty-five years old. Single.
Quarrelled with his people. Had not been home for ten years. Had no
trade. Out of work all winter. The missions and the Army had helped him
a good deal. Had been in the Industrial Home three days. Never worked in
the country. Looked dissipated.
No. 19.
Born in Ireland. Thirty years old. Single. Had people in Ireland who
were poor. Came to this country eleven years ago. Had no trade. Out of
work two months. Expected a position in Brooklyn the following week.
Said he had $60.00 in the bank but lost his book and had to wait to get
his money. Had been in the Industrial Home two days. His appearance was
good.
No. 20.
Born in Jersey City. Italian parents. Twenty-five years old. Single.
Quarrelled with his people. Said he had a step-mother and could not get
along with her. Had been in New York five years working at everything.
Had no trade. Out of work five months. Had saved some money, but it was
all gone. Never worked in the country. In the Industrial Home five days.
Said this was the first time he was ever down. Looked like a hopeful
case.
No. 21.
Born in Philadelphia. Irish parents. Thirty-two years old. Married. His
wife was working and had paid his board all winter, until he came to New
York two weeks before on a freight train. Had been in the Industrial
Home since, and expected to return to his wife. Carpet-weaver by trade
and belonged to the union. Said he drank sometimes, but he looked like a
hard drinker. Otherwise very good.
No. 22.
Born in Brooklyn. American parents. Thirty years old. Single. People
lived in Brooklyn, but they did not have anything to do with him.
Piano-finisher by trade. Did not belong to the union. Was in the army
one year and deserted. Out of work three months. Came to New York two
months ago. Spent all his money, $50.00, in two days. Had been in the
Industrial Home two weeks. Said he was going to reform and get a steady
job. Looked like a hard drinker but otherwise capable.
No. 23.
Born in Scranton, Penna. German parents. Fifty years old. Single. Had
one sister and one brother at home, but he did not write them. Had no
trade. Had travelled all over the United States. Seemed to know a
mission in every city. Never worked in the country. Had been in the
Industrial Home some time, and said they made him work too hard. Looked
like a vagrant.
No. 24.
Born in Springfield, Mass. American parents. Forty years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had not worked for over a year. Had been in jail several
times for riding freights. Never worked in the country. The missions and
the Army had helped him this winter. Looked like a dissipated character.
No. 25.
Born in Germany. Twenty-five years old. Had people in Germany who were
poor. Left home eight months ago and came to New York, with a little
money. Had not worked since he left home. He spoke broken English. Had
no trade. Did not drink much. Had been in the Industrial Home some time.
Looked intelligent and capable. Never worked in the country.
No. 26.
Born in Ireland. Forty-five years old. Single. Had no trade. Had been in
this country twenty years. Worked a good deal on a farm. Had wandered a
good deal. He said the Army were good people and had helped him in
different cities. Had been out of work two months. Looked shiftless.
No. 27.
Born in Greenwich, Conn. American parents. Twenty-seven years old.
Single. Used to be in business with his father as a plumber in
Greenwich, but quarrelled and had not been home for six years. Never
worked on a farm. Looked intelligent but very wild. Said he could have
anything he wanted at home, if he would leave the drink alone.
No. 28.
Born in Boston, Mass. Scotch parents. Fifty-three years old. Married.
Divorced seven years ago. Brass-moulder by trade. Had belonged to the
union but lost his membership through non-payment of dues. Out of work
three months. He drank a good deal, but looked capable. Never worked in
the country.
No. 29.
Born in Cleveland, O. American parents. Twenty-seven years old. Single.
Had no regular trade. Made a business of following fairs as a fakir.
Never worked in the country. Said the missions and the Army had helped
him a good deal this winter. He also spent several nights in the city
lodging house. Looked capable but a little dissipated.
No. 30.
Born in Yonkers, N. Y. American parents. Thirty-six years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had not worked all winter. Was in the Industrial Home for
the fourth time this winter. The missions had helped him. Never worked
in the country. Looked like a vagrant.
No. 31.
Born in Germany. Forty years old. Single. Had no trade. Out of work two
months. The Army gave him clothing. Had been in the Industrial Home
several days. Never stayed in one place very long. Never worked in the
country. Looked like a vagrant.
No. 32.
Born in New York. American parents. Thirty-five years old. Single. Had
no people, except one brother who was in the West. Had no trade. Out of
work four months. Had been in the Industrial Home one week. Never worked
in the country. Said when he had money he gambled and played the races.
Looked intelligent and capable.
No. 33.
Born in Ireland. Forty five years old. Married. Evidently had left his
family. Had no regular trade. Had followed the water a good deal and
worked along the docks. Had nothing steady for three months. Was in the
Industrial Home for the second time this winter. Worked in the country
about two years. Said when the weather got warm he was going to the
country. Looked ignorant and dissipated.
No. 34.
Born in New York. American parents. Thirty years old. Single. Trade of a
shoe-maker, but he had not worked at it for nearly two years. Out of
work three months. Worked in the country a little. Appearance very good.
No. 35.
Born in Philadelphia. American parents. Forty years old. Married. Had
buried his wife and three children. Had no trade but followed the circus
as laborer. Never worked in the country. Had had no steady work for a
year. The Army had been helping him for a month. He said he went on the
drunk sometimes. Looked intelligent but in feeble health.
No. 36.
Born in Hungary. Twenty-nine years old. Single. Had people at home but
did not write often. In this country eight years. Talked good English.
Had no trade. Worked on a farm a good deal in Hungary. Had been in the
Industrial Home four days. Looked very hopeful.
No. 37.
Born in Pittsfield, Mass. American parents. Twenty-one years old.
Single. Had no trade. Had been in the Industrial Home three months. Was
a trusted worker and received $2.50 a week, for driving one of the Army
wagons. Never worked in the country. Looked like a respectable man.
No. 38.
Born in Ireland. Fifty-years old. Single. In this country twenty years.
Had no trade. Had travelled around the world. Had been in the Industrial
Home one month. Said he used to drink, but would never do it again. He
was gray-haired and feeble. Never worked in the country.
No. 39.
Born in Ireland. Fifty-five years old. Single. Had no trade but followed
the water a good deal. Out of work five months. Had been in the
Industrial Home three weeks. Said the Army had helped him before. Looked
like a vagrant.
No. 40.
Born in New York. Irish parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single. People
lived in New York, but he had not lived home for several years.
Quarrelled with his people because of drink. Had no trade. Worked one
season in the country. Had been out of work two months. In the
Industrial Home two weeks. The Army had fitted him out with clothing.
Looked capable but dissipated.
No. 41.
Born in Germany. Thirty-seven years old. Married. Would not say anything
about his family. In this country eleven years. Had no trade but
followed the water as cook or waiter. Had been out of work all winter.
The German Aid Society had helped him. Never worked in the country.
Looked dissipated.
No. 42.
Born in England. Sixty-five years old. Married. Wife dead. Five children
living, but they did not help him. Came to this country forty years ago.
Bricklayer by trade. Belonged to the union, but said they did not help
him. Had been out of work five months. Had been in the Industrial Home
several times this winter. Looked old, gray-haired and feeble.
No. 43.
Born in New York. American parents. Twenty-five years old. Single. Had
no trade. Quarrelled with his people three years ago and had not been
home since. Never worked in the country. Had been in the Industrial Home
four days. Looked quite capable.
No. 44.
Born in Germany. Twenty-nine years old. Single. Had people in Long
Island who were poor. Had no trade, but followed the water a good deal.
Out of work four months. In the Industrial Home five weeks. The Army
gave him clothes. Said he drank a good deal. Never worked in the
country. Looked intelligent but dissipated.
No. 45.
Born in Paterson, N. J. German parents. Twenty-five years old. Had
people in Paterson but was ashamed to write to them. Had no trade. Had
been in the Industrial Home two months. Looked bright and capable.
No. 46.
Born in Trenton, N. J. Irish parents. Twenty-two years old. Single. Had
no trade. Had been out of work three months. In the Industrial Home
three weeks. Expected money from home shortly. Never worked in the
country. Said he drank a little. His appearance was very good.
No. 47.
Born in Stanwich, Conn. American parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
Had people who were poor. Had no trade. Was brought up on a farm. Came
to New York one year ago after a trip through the West. Expected to go
back to the country as soon as the weather got warmer. Had been in the
Industrial Home ten days. Looked stupid but otherwise capable.
No. 48.
Born in Vermont. American parents. Forty-five years old. Single. Was a
tool-maker by trade. Did not belong to the union. Had been out of work
three months. Had been in the Industrial Home one month. Said the Army
were good people. Appearance was good but somewhat dissipated. Never
worked in the country.
No. 49.
Born in Seattle, Washington. Swedish parents. Twenty-eight years old.
Single. Had no trade. Out of work two months. In the Industrial Home
three weeks. Did not drink. Appearance was good. Never worked in the
country.
No. 50.
Born in Ireland. Forty years old. Married. Separated from his wife. In
this country fifteen years. Had no trade. Out of work all winter. The
Army and the missions had helped him several times. Never worked in the
country. Looked shiftless and dissipated.
No. 51.
Born in Scotland. Fifty years old. Single. Had no trade. Had wandered
round a lot. Out of work five months. The Scotch Aid Society helped him
a good deal this winter. Said he liked to drink. Never worked in the
country. Looked like a tramp.
No. 52.
Born in Cleveland, O. American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Married.
His wife was living in Cleveland. He left her because of a quarrel.
Tool-maker by trade. Did not belong to the Union. Out of work four
months. In the Industrial Home one week. Never worked in the country.
Looked efficient and capable.
No. 53.
Born in Brooklyn. Irish parents. Fifty years old. Evidently married. Did
not wish to talk about it. Had no trade. Out of work all winter. Had
received help from the missions and the Army. Drank heavily. Appearance
very poor. Never worked in the country.
No. 54.
Born in Boston, Mass. English parents. Twenty-five years old. Single.
Had people in Boston, who did not help him. Had no trade. Out of work
three months. In the Industrial Home two days. Said he drank sometimes.
Never worked in the country. His appearance was very good.
No. 55.
Born in South America. German parents. Twenty years old. Single. Had no
trade. Came from South America by working on a boat. Left it two months
ago in New York, and had done nothing since. In the Industrial Home
three weeks. Never worked in the country. Expected to go back on the
boat shortly. Looked like a runaway boy and was bright and attractive.
No. 56.
Born in Long Island. American parents. Fifty years old. Single. Had no
trade. Out of work all winter. Had rheumatism and could not do much
work. The Army had helped him a good deal, but he expected to go to the
hospital. Never worked in the country.
No. 57.
Born in Italy. Thirty years old. Single. Had people in Italy, who were
poor. In this country twelve years. Had no trade. Out of work all
winter. In the Industrial Home seven days. Said that this was the first
time he had ever been out of money. Worked in the country somewhat in
Italy. Looked stupid and inefficient.
No. 58.
Born in Cuba. Father American, mother Cuban. Twenty-eight years old.
Single. Had people living in Panama who did not help him. Had no trade.
He travelled a good deal. Came from the West two weeks ago. Got out of
money, and had been in the Industrial Home one week. Looked like a
promising case.
No. 59.
Born in Pittsfield, Mass. Irish parents. Fifty-five years old. Single.
Had no trade, but followed the water somewhat. Had been out of work five
months. In the Industrial Home two weeks. Never worked in the country.
His face showed a very hard life. He was gray-haired and feeble.
No. 60.
Born in Scranton, Penna. American parents. Twenty-two years old. Single.
His people were living in Scranton, but he was ashamed to write to them.
Had no trade. Out of work eight weeks. In the Industrial Home one week.
Never worked in the country. Looked very wild, but otherwise capable.
No. 61.
Born in New York. German parents. Thirty years old. Single. Two sisters
lived in New York, but did not help him because he drank too much. Had
no trade. Had had no steady work all winter. Looked dissipated. Never
worked in the country.
No. 62.
Born in Ireland. Fifty years old. Married. Wife dead. No children. Had
no trade. Out of work three months. Had been in the Industrial Home one
month. Never worked in the country. Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 63.
Born in Chicago. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. People
in Chicago helped him sometimes. Had no trade. Had been working in the
Industrial Home in the kitchen all winter at $1.00 per week. The Army
had fitted him up, and he looked very respectable.
No. 64.
Born in Germany. About forty years old. Single. No people living.
Followed the water. Out of work two months. In the Industrial Home three
weeks. The Army gave him clothes. He looked like a hard drinker, but
otherwise capable. Never worked in the country.
No. 65.
Born in Cambridge, Mass. Irish parents. Forty-eight years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had travelled all over the country. Had been out of work
four months, and had been in the Industrial Home two days. Never worked
in the country. Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 66.
Born in Lynn, Mass. American parents. About fifty years old. Single. Had
no trade. Out of work all winter. Had travelled widely and beaten his
way on freight trains. In the Industrial Home three times this winter.
Never worked in the country. Looked shiftless.
No. 67.
Born in New York. Irish parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single.
Quarrelled with his people. A rigger by trade. Did not belong to the
Union. Out of work six weeks. In the Industrial Home ten days. Said he
drank a little. Looked capable. Never worked in the country.
No. 68.
Born in Germany. About thirty years old. Single. People in Germany did
not help him. Waiter by trade. In the Industrial Home two weeks. Had no
steady work all Winter. Never worked in the country. Expected a position
in a few days. Looked stupid, but otherwise capable.
No. 69.
Born in Philadelphia. Hungarian parents. Thirty-five years old. Single.
People dead. Had no trade. Out of work all winter. Different charitable
organizations had helped him. Had been in the Industrial Home one week.
Did not like to work. Worked in the country a little. Looked shiftless.
No. 70.
Born in Jersey City. Irish parents. Fifty-five years old. Married. Wife
dead. Had no trade. Had travelled a good deal. Out of work all winter.
Had been in the Industrial Home six weeks. The Army fitted him out with
clothing. He said he was not going to drink any more, and looked
intelligent, but was getting old. Never worked in the country.
No. 71.
Born in Germany. Twenty-six years old. Single. In this country six
years. Had people in Germany, and he expected help from them. Machinist
by trade. Did not belong to the Union. Out of work four months. In the
Industrial Home two days. Looked like a wild youth. Never worked in the
country.
No. 72.
Born in Ireland. Forty-five years old. Single. Had no trade. Out of work
all winter. Drank heavily. Worked in the country two years. Had wandered
all over the States. Looked like a vagrant.
No. 73.
Born in New York. American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single. Had
no trade. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home four days. Army
gave him clothes. The missions had helped him. Never worked in the
country. Looked capable.
No. 74.
Born in Scotland. Forty-one years old. Single. Had no trade. Out of work
four months. In the Industrial Home three days. Admitted that he drank
heavily. Never worked in the country. Looked like a tramp.
No. 75.
Born in Chicago. American parents. Twenty-two years old. Single. People
in Chicago were poor. Left home two months ago and came to New York.
Spent all his money. The Army took him in, and for six weeks he had been
in the Home. He wrote home. Expected to get work shortly. Looked bright
and respectable.
No. 76.
Born in Boston, Mass. Irish parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had
no trade. Had wandered a good deal. Never worked in the country. Had
been in the Industrial Home one week. Did not like to work. Looked like
a tramp.
No. 77.
Born in Germany. Forty years old. Married. Wife lived in Germany with
two children. Had been in this country four years and expected his wife
next summer. Plumber by trade. Did not belong to the Union. Out of work
two months. In the Industrial Home one week, after a very hard struggle
around the streets. Said he drank a little. Appearance was very good.
No. 78.
Born in Washington, D. C. Forty-five years old. Single. Had no people.
Had no trade. Belonged to the United States Army six years. Out of work
all winter. In the Industrial Home three weeks. Worked in the country a
good deal. Looked shiftless.
No. 79.
Born in Ireland. Thirty-five years old. Single. Hod carrier by trade.
Belonged to the Union. Out of work five months. In the Industrial Home
four days. Looked capable and efficient. Never worked in the country.
No. 80.
Born in Germany. Fifty-two years old. Married. Wife dead. Followed the
water most of the time. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home
three days. Appearance very poor. Never worked in the country.
No. 81.
Born in New York. Twenty-eight years old. Single. People lived in New
York, but did not help him. Out of work all winter. Had no trade. Had
been in the Industrial Home one month. Looked like a dissipated
character. Never worked in the country.
No. 82.
Born in Boston, Mass. Swedish parents. Thirty years old. Single. Iron
worker by trade. Did not belong to the Union. Had been out of work five
months. Had been in the Industrial Home five weeks. Never worked in the
country. He drank a good deal, but looked capable.
No. 83.
Born in England. Eighteen years old. Single. In this country two years.
Had no trade. Out of work one month. Had been in the Industrial Home
three weeks. Had secured a position on a ship going to England, starting
in three days. Looked like a straight-forward boy.
No. 84.
Born in Albany, N. Y. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single.
Had no trade. Joined the navy two years ago. Deserted, was captured and
spent one year in jail. Had been out three months and had not worked
since. Had been in the Industrial Home one month. Appearance was good.
Never worked in the country.
No. 85.
Born in Ireland. Fifty years old. Single. Had no trade. Had wandered all
around the world. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home two or
three times. Said he worked one year on a farm. He was crippled and
looked feeble.
No. 86.
Born in Germany. Twenty-five years old. Single. People in Germany, but
he did not write home. Had no trade. In this country five years. Out of
work two months. Never worked in the country. Had been in the
Industrial Home one day. Seemed to lack ambition.
No. 87.
Born in Denver, Colo. Irish parents. Fifty-five years old. Married.
Separated from his wife five years ago. Painter by trade. Did not belong
to the Union. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home three
weeks. Appearance was very poor. Never worked in the country.
No. 88.
Born in Sweden. Twenty-two years old. Single. People at home sent him
money sometimes. He said he had also sent money home. Had no trade. Out
of work three months. In the Industrial Home four days. Used to work in
the country in Sweden. In this country three years. Looked capable.
No. 89.
Born in Dublin, Ireland. Thirty-one years old. Single. In this country
two years. Had no trade. Out of work ten weeks. In the Industrial Home
three weeks. Worked in the country for a few months. Appearance was very
good.
No. 90.
Born in New York. American parents. Twenty-five years old. Single. Had
people in New York, but had nothing to do with them. He wandered a lot.
Had no trade. Never worked in the country. Out of work all winter. The
Army and missions had helped him. In the Industrial Home three days.
Looked like a vagrant.
No. 91.
Born in Germany. Forty years old. Single. Had no people. Followed the
water most of the time. Out of work seven months. Was in the German
Hospital three months with hip disease. He was still crippled and could
not work well. Had been in the Industrial Home three weeks. Looked very
feeble. Never worked in the country.
No. 92.
Born in Washington, D. C. American parents. Twenty-six years old.
Single. Was in the navy five years. Had no trade. Out of work all
winter. In the Industrial Home three days. Never worked in the country.
Acted very queerly and evidently had weak mind.
No. 93.
Born in New York. American parents. Thirty years old. Single. Carpenter
by trade. Out of work four months. In the Industrial Home six weeks. The
Army gave him clothing. Never worked in the country. Used to drink
heavily. Looked capable.
No. 94.
Born in England. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had people in England,
and he wrote home sometimes. Had no trade. Out of work three months. In
the Industrial Home five weeks. Worked in the country one summer. Had
been in this country three years. Did not drink. Looked very intelligent
and capable.
No. 95.
Born in Providence, R. I. Irish parents. Forty-five years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had beaten his way all through the country. Never worked
in the country. The Army had helped him a good deal. Had been in the
Home three months and said he had not taken a drink during that time. He
looked bright and responsible, but showed the signs of a hard life.
No. 96.
Born in Ireland. Thirty years old. Single. People lived in Ireland. In
this country four years. Never wrote home. Had no trade. Worked in the
country one year. In the Industrial Home two weeks. Appearance was good
but dissipated.
No. 97.
Born in Trenton, N. J. American parents. Twenty-five years old. Single.
Followed the water a good deal. Out of work all winter. Had been in the
Industrial Home eight weeks. Never worked in the country. Looked
capable.
No. 98.
Born in Brooklyn. American parents. Twenty-six years old. Single. Had no
trade. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home two weeks. Army
gave him clothing. He looked intelligent and capable. Never worked in
the country.
No. 99.
Born in Germany. Forty-five years old. People lived in Germany, but he
did not write home. Had no trade. Out of work all winter. He travelled
round a good deal and drank heavily. Had worked a good deal in the
country. Had been in the Industrial Home four months, and said he was
going to reform. Looked like a hopeful case.
No. 100.
Born in Portland, Oregon. American parents. Twenty-six years old.
Single. Had no trade. Had travelled a good deal. Out of work all winter.
In the Industrial Home three months. Expected money from home soon, and
expected to go West. Said he had worked on a farm a good deal. Looked
stupid but otherwise capable.
No. 101.
Born in Vermont. American parents. Thirty years old. Single. Carpenter
by trade. Belonged to the Union. Out of work all winter. In the
Industrial Home one week. Never worked in the country. The missions had
helped him a good deal this winter. Looked capable.
No. 102.
Born in Boston, Mass. Irish parents. Fifty-two years old. Single. People
all dead. Had no trade. Out of work four months. In the Industrial Home
three weeks. Said he had ruined his life through drink. Was in the
hospital two months this winter. He never worked in the country. He was
crippled and could not work much.
No. 103.
Born in Chicago. American parents. Twenty-five years old. Single. Had
people in Chicago, but ran away four years ago. Had no trade. Out of
work three months. In the Industrial Home two months. Never worked in
the country. Looked like a hopeful case.
No. 104.
Born in Cincinnati, O. American parents. Thirty-five years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had wandered a good deal. Never worked in the country. In
the Industrial Home two weeks. Appearance was good but dissipated.
No. 105.
Born in New York. Irish parents. Twenty-five years old. Single. Had
people in New York, but they were unable to help him. Had no trade. Out
of work all winter. Had been in the Industrial Home five weeks. Never
worked in the country. Said he drank a little. Appearance was very good.
No. 106.
Born in Chicago. American parents. Twenty-five years old. Single. Had no
trade. Out of work all winter. In the Industrial Home three months.
Never worked in the country. The Army had helped him to become
respectable, he said. Looked capable.
No. 107.
Born in Ireland. Forty-eight years old. Single. People dead. Had no
trade. Out of work two months. Had wandered a lot. In the Industrial
Home three weeks. Had worked in the country somewhat. Looked dissipated.
No. 108.
Born in St. Louis, Mo. American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single.
Had no trade. Out of work three months. The Army gave him clothes and he
had been in the Industrial Home two months. Never worked in the country.
Looked inefficient.
No. 109.
Born in Sweden. Forty years old. Single. Had people in Sweden. Had no
trade. Out of work all winter. Had been in Industrial Home three months.
Army gave him clothing. Did not drink. Looked capable and efficient.
Never worked in the country.
Some Facts Brought Out in the 109 Industrial Examples.[36]
Nationality. No. Percentage.
American parentage 41 .376
Irish parentage 30 .276
German parentage 18 .165
English and Scotch parentage 9 .083
Italian parentage 3 .027
Swedish parentage 3 .027
Other countries, parentage 5 .046
Married 17 .156
Single 92 .844
Worked a little in country 16 .146
Worked considerably in country 7 .064
Men with regular trades 31 .289
Union men 6 .055
Men who looked efficient 38 .349
Men who looked semi-efficient 21 .193
Men who looked inefficient 50 .458
Ages.
15-20 2 .018
20-30 55 .504
30-40 23 .212
40-50 20 .183
50-60 8 .074
60-70 1 .009
Length of time out of work.
Less than 1 month 8 .073
More than 1 month 17 .156
More than 2 months 16 .146
More than 3 months.[37] 68 .625
FOOTNOTES:
[14] "Prospectus of the Salvation Army Industrial Homes Company."
[15] "The Poor and the Land," p. 130.
[16] Haggard places it at 500 in 1905; at the time of my visit, May,
1906, it was about 300.
[17] "Hadleigh," p. 52.
[18] "The Poor and the Land," p. 127.
[19] "The S. A. and the Public," pp. 113-114.
[20] _Ibid._, p. 114.
[21] _Ibid._, p. 105.
[22] "Hadleigh," p. 56.
[23] Apparently no definite data are obtainable regarding these men
since the time of treatment.
[24] Introduction, p. 10.
[25] For instance, the president, vice-president and secretary and
treasurer are all Army officers of high standing.
[26] The following extract is taken from the Salvation Army Social
Gazette of February 5, 1908: "Whether the Officer of the Salvation Army
takes charge of the industrial home to manage it in the interests of the
concern, or whether he takes charge of the corps, the one great purpose
of his whole life is to proclaim salvation to all with whom he comes in
contact."
[27] See p. 36.
[28] We think that this would probably be done, even though the presence
of the home in the particular locality was a great boon to the poor, and
although this would be contrary to the principles of the organization,
so strong is the idea which the company has of financial success. This
further strengthens the idea that the movement is drifting from its
original purpose of uplifting the down-fallen humanity to the purpose of
perpetuating and extending itself as an economic enterprise.
[29] See "The S. A. and the Public," pp. 121 to 130.
[30] A typical industry instanced to support this objection was the
manufacture of fire wood. See "The S. A. and the Public," p. 124.
[31] The criticism here of course would be that, to the extent that the
army applies donations from the public to this industrial work, to that
extent it has an advantage over another business enterprise and differs
from it just to that extent in which it secures capital on which it need
pay no interest or return. To what extent this is done, we have been
unable to ascertain, but the Army is paying interest to investors who
furnish money to carry on this work. This point is dealt with somewhat
in the next paragraph.
[32] See "The S. A. and the Public," pp. 122 to 127. Also "The Social
Relief Work of the S. A.," pp. 11 and 12.
[33] Several leading officers have stated that they never undersell
paper or rags, the largest part of their business, and that the only
underselling done by them is in the retail store and that this is
slight. They justify themselves by the fact that the regular second-hand
men are tricksters and will rob the poor of their money, in most cases
carrying on a pawn shop, which the Army never does.
[34] See Seager, "Introduction to Economics," p. 234.
[35] See "Principles of Relief," p. 35.
[36] To show the difference in the grade of the men at the Industrial
Homes and those at the Hotels, I have given separate tables for each.
The combined tables showing certain characteristics of the class of men
in general with which the Army deals will be found at the end of Chapter
IV.
[37] This number includes all the inefficient men and the men who are
steadily working in the Industrial Home.
CHAPTER II.
THE SALVATION ARMY HOTELS AND LODGING HOUSES.
In a study of environment and its effects on the lowest classes of our
great cities, the cheap lodging house affords a favorable field. Here we
have crowding, unsanitary conditions, immoral atmosphere, and all the
attendant evils. A good description of such lodging houses in New York
City has been given by Jacob Riis, in the following words:
"In the caravansaries that line Chatham Street and the Bowery,
harboring nightly a population as large as that of many a thriving
town, a home-made article of tramp and thief is turned out that is
attracting the increasing attention of the police, and offers a
field for the missionary's labors, besides which most others seem of
slight consequence"[38].
The cheap lodging houses of London and other great cities are similar in
their environment and effects. This field was early entered by the Army.
It was necessary that a very low rate of cost for the individual
concerned be maintained because of competition with the lodging houses
already existing, and because of the size of the prospective lodger's
purse. The first experiments were tried in London. There, at first, the
primary aim was to aid the needy and destitute, but later the Army
entered into a competition with the existing lodging houses and paid
more attention to the element of environment. It was soon definitely
proved that such a work could be carried on to advantage, that shelter
amid beneficial surroundings, could be provided to those almost
destitute, and that the work could be self-supporting. Since then this
work has extended to nearly all the larger cities of Europe and America,
but it is of greatest extent in England and the United States. Along
with this growth there has been differentiation. The hotels have been
graded to suit the requirements of the different classes to which they
appeal: the almost destitute class, and those who have steady
employment. Hence, besides treating of conditions common to both, we
shall describe special features of two grades of both men's and women's
hotels.[39]
The location for a men's hotel must be determined partly by its
propinquity to the class of men which it is seeking to attract and
partly for facilities for ventilation, cleanliness and general sanitary
conditions. These last features are of the greatest importance in this
work. Led by the real need of the case, and working with regard to its
reputation, the Army has, in this respect, shown a great advance over
the general cheap lodging houses. Still, there is room for improvement
in the Army hotels.[40] One great difficulty lies in the lodgers, many
of whom are so habituated to uncleanliness in general, that it is with
great reluctance on their part that they are induced to cleanliness.
Especially in the lower class hotels is this true where the rough,
brutal element finds its way. Another difficulty lies in the fact that
the Army frequently takes old buildings and turns them into hotels, when
they are not suitable for the purpose. A favorable tendency to overcome
this, however, lies in the Army's desire to put up new buildings fitted
for hotels, and this is being done in many cities.
In both the higher and the lower class men's hotels, the general plan is
to have two or three grades of sleeping apartments. The first grade is
in the form of dormitories, where each dormitory will contain from ten
to fifty beds in the smaller hotels, and from fifty to one hundred and
even two hundred beds in the larger.[41] For a bed in one of these
dormitories, 10c and 15c per night is charged in the United States, and
in England 2d up. This includes the use of a locker beside the bed, with
sometimes a nightgown, and sometimes a bath. The second grade of lodging
is in individual rooms, partitioned off, but inside rooms, for which the
charge is 15c in the United States, and 4d to 6d in England. Then
finally we have the third grade of lodging, which consists of individual
rooms which have outside windows, and for which the price varies from
20c to 50c per night according to situation and furnishing.[42]
Sometimes the three grades of lodging are found on the same floor, a
part of the floor being dormitory, and a part partitioned off into
rooms, the partitions running up to a height of eight or nine feet. This
method of partitioning off the rooms is almost universal. It is cheap
and to some extent sanitary, since by means of windows at either end of
the building a continual current of air can be maintained all over the
floor. In most of the higher class hotels one floor is given up to
dormitories and another to individual rooms, while the majority of lower
class hotels consist entirely of dormitories. Hotels are of all sizes,
and run from one floor up to eight or ten.
The beds found in the Army hotels are iron, with mattresses usually
covered with American cloth or some form of leather, but sometimes with
strong canvas.[43] Each bed is provided with pillow, sheets, a coverlid,
and sometimes an additional counterpane. The individual rooms, in
addition to having better beds, contain a looking glass, a chair, a
small table, and other furnishings according to the price of the room.
In most cases washing facilities are only found in the lavatory, common
to the whole floor.
Comparative cleanliness is enforced at all grades of hotels. Baths are
sometimes made compulsory, though often this rule cannot be rigidly
enforced. Usually each floor is provided with bath tubs and shower
baths. Nearly every hotel has a fumigating room, an air tight apartment
filled with racks, upon which clothing is hung. If a man's appearance or
clothing looks suspicious in any way, his clothes are placed in a sack
with a number corresponding to the number of his bed or room, and hung
in the fumigating room over night. Early the next morning his clothes
will be returned to him. The dormitories and rooms themselves, every few
days, receive a fumigating and cleaning. Thus, except in very rare
cases, no fault can be found with the cleanliness of the Army hotels. We
hardly ever visited any of them without coming into contact with the
scent of fumigation, or finding some individual working with mop and
broom.
The above description, except where stated differently, fits both
classes of men's hotels. The higher class, intended for transients of
the better class of poor and for workmen with steady employment, has
some distinctive features. In addition to better equipment along the
line of furnishings, lavatories, etc., this class of hotels necessarily
has a better social environment than the other. For instance, there are
many lower class hotels where the reading room is dark, poorly
furnished, without attractive reading matter, and where it serves as
smoking room as well as reading room. While this might be improved, yet
so low are the occupants that such improvement would not be appreciated.
But when we come to the higher grade hotels, we find a difference. Take,
for example, the Army Hotel in the city of Cleveland, O., on the corner
of Eagle and Erie Streets. This corner building was built by the Army to
answer its purpose, at a cost of $100,000.00. There are no dormitories
in the building. The three upper floors are given over to the hotel,
which comprises 130 rooms, each room being steam heated and electric
lighted, and each floor being reached by elevators. Bathing facilities
and sanitary arrangements are first class. A comfortable reading room
and lounging room is provided for general use, where there are popular
magazines, daily papers and writing conveniences. As another example,
about the highest grade Army institution of this class is found in
Boston, and is called "The People's Palace." It is a large, five-story,
corner building, built by the Army for the purpose. In this institution
the social environment is especially emphasized. There is a reading
room, a smoking room, one or more social parlors, a gymnasium with a
swimming tank, and an auditorium with a seating capacity of 600. The
whole building, with its 287 single rooms, besides the above advantages,
is equipped with steam heat, electric service and other modern
conveniences. A special fee of 25c is charged for the use of the
gymnasium and swimming tank, but the other advantages are free to
lodgers. In this way, it is seen that the higher class hotels have more
opportunity for a good social environment and for social work. We think
that the addition of certain features, such as men's clubs, smokers,
popular lectures, etc., would be of great advantage to this class of
institutions. To overcome the difficulty of a transient population,
however, would require considerable ingenuity.[44]
Along the line of religious environment we find the hotels differ a
great deal. In London there seems to be a strong influence of this kind,
most of the hotels of both classes holding gospel meetings frequently.
For instance, at the Quaker Street Elevator Home, which is partly a
hotel and partly an industrial home, meetings are held nearly every
night with good attendance, and at the Burne Street Hotel well attended
meetings are held every night except Wednesdays and Saturdays, these
nights being given over to the men for washing their clothes. But in the
United States we find, as a rule, that the Salvation Army hotels are run
with very little religious influence. In a few cases, meetings are held
regularly, but more often no provision is made for them. Meetings are
generally in progress somewhere in the neighborhood at the regular Army
corps, and the men are left to attend these meetings if they wish.
Generally they are willing to take advantage of the hotel, but do not
care for the sentimental form of religion preached by the Army. Hence,
in most of the hotels, we find the religious influence limited to the
texts on the walls, and to the attitude of the employees, who are not
always Salvationists or converted men.
Some hotels of both classes are fitted with a kitchen and lunch counter.
This is nearly always the case in London, where the hotels have a
counter, over which the food is sold, and then taken to a seat by the
purchaser. In several cases the counter is divided so that it opens into
different rooms, and there are two grades of prices, the lower price
being paid for food somewhat damaged and stale.[45]
We need not dwell long on the subject of the women's hotels, as that
does not form an important part of the Army's work. The women's hotels,
even more than the men's, have tended to fall into two classes. There is
a great difference between the hotel for women who are almost destitute,
and the hotel for respectable working girls, who have positions as
clerks and stenographers, and who happen to have no home of their own. A
typical hotel of the former class is situated near the Dearborn Street
Railway Depot in Chicago. It consists of three floors, and has
accommodation for fifty girls or women. The woman officer in charge
lives here herself, and seeks to have an environment as homelike as
possible. She states, however, that occasionally the women come in
noisily and are troublesome. There is a great difference between one
woman and another, and she wishes she had one floor with better
accommodation than the rest for the better element among them. The price
paid per bed at this hotel is 10 cents. A good example of this class of
hotel in England, is the one situated on Hanbury Street, Whitechapel,
London, where there are three floors, two upper floors given over to
dormitories containing 276 beds in all, and the ground floor containing
a dining room, kitchen, small hall, and office. Here, women are turned
away quite often because of lack of room. 2d. is charged for a bed, and
for food a scale of prices, such as tea, 1/2d.--soup, 1/2d.--bread,
1/2d.--etc. There are nine officers working here, and nine other
workers, six of the latter receiving 3s. per week, and three receiving
1s. per week.
With the higher class hotels for women, the Army has not had much
success. This is easily understood, as the respectable girl does not
like to be connected with a hotel run by an organization which is
prominent for its slum and rescue work. These hotels charge a higher
rate for rooms and are situated in a good quarter of the city.[46] They
are frequented by shop girls, bookkeepers, clerks and stenographers.
Apparently, no great religious pressure is brought to bear on the girls
and women, but this would probably depend on the officer in charge.
The growth of the Hotel Department of the Army's work, like that of the
Industrial Department, has, of recent years, been great. Soon after the
publication in 1890 of General Booth's book, "Darkest England," the
hotel work was started in England, and its progress has been rapid. In
the United States at first the work did not make much headway. When
Commander Booth-Tucker came to take charge in 1896, there were three
small men's hotels situated in the cities of Buffalo, San Francisco,
and Seattle. At the present time, nearly every large city in England
and the United States has one or more of these hotels, the latter
country having 71 men's hotels and 4 women's hotels, with a total
accommodation of 8,688. The tendency now is toward fewer of the lower
class hotels, and more of the higher class; in other words, toward fewer
hotels where beds can be had for 10c and 15c, and more where they will
cost 20c and 25c. The Army gives as its reason for this the fact that
the cheaper hotel cannot be maintained in a wholesome manner and be
self-supporting.[47] Similar to the Industrial Department in its
management, the Hotel Department has its divisions, its graded officers
with their various responsibilities, and its head officer in charge at
the national headquarters. In the United States, however, unlike the
Industrial Department, the Hotel Department has no separate financial
company, in the form of a corporation, behind it. In some instances,
deserving men are given bed tickets and meal tickets free, by officers
detailed for the purpose, and, to that extent the hotels are a charity.
This is done with due discretion and does not make an appreciable
difference. The amount of charity indulged in by the Army in this way
is, however, probably responsible for the fact that in 1907, there was a
loss to the Army in this department of $4,500.00, not a very large
amount, considering the number of hotels concerned.
Coming to the value of the Army hotels from the point of view of the
social economist, care must be taken to discriminate between their
commercial and their philanthropic aspects. The public has a mistaken
idea of the work carried on by this branch of the Army. Many people have
an idea that thousands of homeless, starving men and women are nightly
taken care of in these Army hotels. Putting aside the question whether
such would be good relief policy or not, the statement itself is not
true. In a majority of cases the man or woman in order to gain
admittance must have the price, and in many instances, that price will
also admit them to the regular cheap lodging house outside of the Army.
We are not finding fault with the system of charging, since from the
point of view of true relief, provided that bona-fide, destitute cases
are not left without help, the price should be required, as it would be
a great evil to throw open the hotels to the crowds of regular beggars
and social parasites who constantly throng any institution supposed to
be charitable; but since the Army hotel movement claims to be a
self-supporting business, it is not to be regarded as different from any
other lodging business, except in those points in which it excels the
other. With this caution we believe that we still can distinguish two
lines along which credit is to be given the Army. The first is the
environment which the Army has created for its guests. It is not
necessary here to show what a great factor environment is in this case,
but simply to emphasize its importance. From our description of the Army
hotel, it is seen that, with certain exceptions, the Army maintains
cleanliness, cheerfulness, and a homelike atmosphere around its lodging
houses.[48] In this important respect then, the Army hotel is to be
commended. Secondly, the Army has indirectly, by its competition with
the ordinary cheap lodging houses, led them to adopt improvement for
purely commercial reasons. If a man has only ten cents, he is going to
invest that ten cents to the best advantage, and the old time lodging
houses have found it necessary to improve their conditions in order to
meet the competition of the Army. For this too, credit is to be given
the latter. In addition the competition reacts on the Army and tends to
make it keep up its own standard.
In order more clearly to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
cheap lodging houses, whether Army hotels or not, it would be well here
to consider objections to their existence. Three objections have been
raised to all cheap lodging houses in general.
1. That they herd together a low class of vagrants and vicious
characters.
2. That their cheapness lowers the standard of living.
3. That they encourage the youth of the country to come to the city and
live in comparative idleness.[49]
No one who has looked into the matter has any doubt about the accuracy
of the first objection. One glance at the faces of a group of men in the
smoking room of any such hotel reveals many of the low, bestial,
criminal type; many victims of dissipation and many who have acquired a
dislike for work of any sort. This harboring of the vicious element is
also true of the Army hotels of the lower class, but it is in company
with this element that we find the men for whom more or less can be
done.[50]
The second objection must be considered more carefully. To repeat the
definition of the standard of living which was discussed in connection
with the Industrial Department, it is the scale or measure of comfort
and satisfaction, which a person or community of persons, regards as
indispensable to happiness. Now the question is whether these cheap
lodging houses lower this standard; whether their existence results in a
tendency to live with less effort and less ambition, and thus renders
men and women less productive and less proficient. This question must be
separated into a question regarding the community as a whole, and a
question regarding the individual. As regards the standard of living of
any single community, the answer would be that the standard is not
appreciably lowered by this hotel system, since the occupants are mostly
single men wandering around, and the standard of living of the community
is more concerned with the maintenance of homes in its midst, than of
transients. This, however, brings in the further question as to whether
the cheap living made possible by the lodging houses leads to the
breaking up of homes, since if it does so, it would bear decidedly on
the standard of living. We would answer this second question in the
negative, because life in the cheap hotel is not such a desirable thing
as to lead to the breaking up of homes. A man has already left home and
is already reduced in circumstances, before the fact of such cheap
living as the hotels and cheap restaurants of the Bowery in New York, or
of Whitechapel in London, ever comes to him as an advantage. But, on the
other hand, when it comes to the individual concerned, we think that the
standard is lowered and that in many cases the objection holds good. For
instance, take a man with a regular trade, say bricklaying or
carpentering. He is thrown out of work and gradually drifts down to the
cheap hotel. For months, possibly, he strives in vain to get work at his
trade. He exists, however, by means of odd jobs picked up at random; he
becomes shiftless; the life which consists of so much "hanging around"
and loafing, decreases his efficiency, and, in this way, his standard is
lowered. At the same time his character is affected, and even if no
worse development takes place, he loses ambition, and that lowers his
standard. Hence, in conclusion, we would say that the objection that the
hotel movement of the Army leads to a lowering of a standard of living
has no place as regards the community, but is sustained as regards
individuals.
The third objection that the country youth are induced by this cheap
living to leave for the city is not a strong one and needs but short
notice. Some of the most successful men of our cities come from the
country, but very few of the lower and pauper classes. This has been
shown by the investigations of Mr. Fox in England, and by our own
investigations in the United States.[51]
The consideration of these objections leads us to a closer examination
of the class of men frequenting the hotels of the Army. The men's work
being so much larger, let us look at the occupants of the men's hotels.
Here we must separate the comparatively few hotels of the higher class,
which, charging higher prices and harboring the working man, have a
different environment from the others. In these, the higher class, we
see a competition with the ordinary boarding and lodging houses which
single men frequent, a competition which, owing to the more healthful
social environment of the Army hotel, is to be welcomed and approved of
as a preventive of vice and degradation. The latter is often the result
of crowded, uncleanly, workingmen's lodgings, which drive their
occupants to the saloon. But the majority of the Army hotels are filled
with the lowest class of men, out of any steady employment. This class
is composed for the most part and under present conditions, of men who
are almost helpless cases.[52] Conditions can be conceived which would
result in the betterment of a certain percentage of these, but a large
number would always be hopeless. Many have been given their chances and
have thrown them away; some have had no chances, and some could not use
them if they had. Many are physical and moral wrecks. In their faces you
see no ambition. They simply exist as do animals. For such, except in
unusual cases, there is no remedy. Do all you can for them, and they
will slide back again; give them work, and if they are willing to take
it at all, they soon lose their positions. Some belong to the
pseudo-social class and are mere parasites feeding on society. Others
are anti-social, bitter and criminal.[53]
These men are not those with which the Army is successful, in its
industrial institutions, although many of them have been tried. They
secure their ten cents or fifteen cents for a bed in a cheap hotel by
any means which comes along. They form a class, which especially in the
older countries of Europe and increasingly in the new world, presents a
problem that is the great puzzle of the statesman and the social
economist alike.
The present tendency of the Army already mentioned to have fewer of the
lower class, cheap hotels and more of the higher class brings up some
important considerations. There are three points which come up for
particular notice here. First, as has already been stated, the present
tendency of the Army is to have fewer of the lower class or cheap hotels
and more of the higher class. One reason for this is that, although the
Army's competition has in many instances forced the ordinary cheap
hotels to better their equipment, still, in the long run, the Army
cannot successfully compete with the ordinary low class hotel and
maintain an equally good or better environment, without having its hotel
work subsidized by the public. The men whom we have just described do
not appreciate better surroundings sufficiently to pay fifteen cents for
a bed at the Army hotel, when they can get one for ten cents at another
place around the corner. Secondly, as the Army extends its work, there
is the ever present tendency of any organization to become an end in
itself. Hence the Army tends to forsake its field of the lower class for
the field of the working class for financial reasons. If it can carry on
a hotel which appeals to a higher class of working men who are willing
to pay $1.50 upwards per week for a separated room such as has been
described, they may do better financially than with a dormitory whose
beds are held at ten cents. This second point of consideration leads us
to a third, and that is, what is to become of this lower class of
vagrants and unemployables. This discussion hardly comes in the scope of
this book, but we might suggest in passing that the cheap, lower class
of hotels with which the Army has entered into competition should not be
allowed to continue as at present. In case of the failure to provide
competition, the city itself should provide a successful competition
under good environment, or should take measures for the segregation of
the vicious elements of the population from the merely weak, aged and
unfortunate.[54]
On the other hand, among the occupants of these hotels a certain number
are men for whom there is hope; some victims of misfortune; others
degraded by dissipation and recklessness, but not entirely demoralized.
With these the Army can deal successfully in its industrial homes, and
some of them can regain a foothold without aid. For these men the Army
hotel is certainly a boon.[55] A man who has not lost ambition and who
can gather a few cents a day to sustain him, until some temporary
difficulty is past is glad to take advantage of such an institution.
Finally, regarding this class as a whole, something must be done with
them, and it is necessary for those who find fault with their
congregation in the Army hotels, to point out a better way of caring for
them. As long as they exist, they will tend to congregate somewhere, and
until some better solution is offered, we might as well take what is at
hand, and if it is the Army hotel, hold that institution to its best
efforts and its best environment.
To sum up, then, our conclusions of this part of the Army's work, we
find that the hotels are commercial enterprises, with, as a rule, an
environment superior to the regular cheap hotels of the same price, and
that although there is an objection to the congregation of the vicious
and vagrant along with the unfortunate, and although there may be a
tendency to lower the standard of living of these people, individually
considered, yet there is a justification for the existence of these
hotels, as something must be done with this class of people, and this is
the best solution offered, inasmuch as a certain percentage of this
class is really aided and tided over temporary difficulty. At the same
time, there remains the need of the segregation of the class concerned,
with a more scientific, practical, individual treatment. Better work can
be done along this line.
EXAMPLES OF SALVATION ARMY HOTEL LODGERS.
A collection of 76 cases made on seventeen different evenings during the
months of March and April, 1908, at two of the Salvation Army hotels,
both situated on the Bowery in New York City, one being a lower class
hotel and the other a combination of lower and higher class. These cases
were collected at first hand by the author and a friend of the author,
Mr. James Ward, both of whom mingled among the men in the disguise of
working men. In this way the facts were gained without much difficulty,
with the exception of information regarding the family of the man
concerned. Sometimes, therefore, this latter information is lacking.
No. 1.
Born in New York City of Irish parentage. Twenty-five years old. Single.
Had no home and did not know whether or not his people were living. Only
trade was that of hotel porter but had done other things. Had worked a
little in the country. Had had no steady work for three months. Walked
the streets the previous night and had had coffee and rolls on the
"bread line." Received a bed that night through charity. Did not appear
dissipated but showed lack of ambition.
No. 2.
Born in Ireland. About thirty years old. Single. Did not know about his
people as he did not write home. Had been in New York seven years.
Worked as stableman most of the time but had been out of steady work for
six weeks. Never worked in the country. Appeared dissipated and
inefficient.
No. 3.
Born in Pittsburg of American parents. About forty years old. Single.
Had a brother, he thought, in Pittsburg but no other relatives alive.
Had no regular trade. Had travelled a good deal in the United States but
never west of Chicago. Had done odd jobs in the country. Evidently a
tramp. Looked stupid and incapable.
No. 4.
Born in Germany. About twenty-three years old. Single. Wrote to his
people sometimes, but they were poor. Trade, a waiter. Had worked in New
York for five years. Had had no steady work for over two months. Had a
little money saved but that was nearly gone. Expected to go to Albany
the next day to work. Never worked in the country. Appeared to be a
capable, steady man.
No. 5.
Born in Scotland. Fifty-three years old. Single. People all dead except
a married sister. Regular trade, a boiler-maker. In this country most of
the time for thirty-five years. Had travelled all around the world.
Never worked in the country. Had no steady work all winter, but obtained
work for one or two days every week and thus paid his way at the hotel.
Said he lived up to his salary when working steadily. Is growing old.
Sometimes went on a "spree" when he had money. Looked like a
hard-working, efficient man.
No. 6.
Born in Ireland. About forty years old. Had married and separated from
his wife. Trade was brick-laying, but he was not a union man. Never
worked in the country. Came to New York at eighteen and had been there
most of the time since. Claimed to be a Mason, and said that he expected
help from a friend. Had been out of work all winter but worked
occasionally around saloons and nearly always had the price of a bed.
Admitted drinking heavily. Looked dissipated.
No. 7.
Born in Buffalo of American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single.
Waiter by trade. Parents were dead. Had two brothers but did not know
where. Had worked a little in the country but knew nothing of farming.
Had worked as waiter in New York for three years. Got into a fight three
weeks before and had his face disfigured. As a result lost his job.
Walked the streets two nights last week. Got coffee and rolls on the
"bread line." Worked in a stable yesterday and made $1.00. Appeared
somewhat dissipated but intelligent.
No. 8.
Born in New York City. Father German. Mother Scotch. Thirty-two years
old. Single. His father lived somewhere in New York, and he expected to
get work shortly and live with him. Trade was a machinist. Had mostly
worked at bicycle repairing. Had travelled a good deal but never worked
on a farm. Went to Philadelphia this Winter and lost position. Worked
three days in a woodyard for board and lodging. Later had himself
committed to jail for one month. Came back to New York last week. Did
not appear dissipated, but looked bright and efficient.
No. 9.
Born in Lawrence, Mass., of American parents. About twenty-two years
old. Single. Worked since a boy in Lawrence in the woolen mills until he
lost position six weeks previously. Always lived with his people. Had
never been hungry or without a bed. Came to New York two weeks
previously but had done nothing since. Had just money enough left to go
home, where he expected to obtain work again shortly. Looked thoroughly
capable and reliable.
Nos. 10 and 11.
Two brothers born in New York of Irish parentage. Aged twenty-eight and
thirty-one respectively. Both single. Parents dead. Had trade of awning
makers, with plenty of work in summer but none in winter. Had never
worked in the country. Had been living by means of odd jobs and charity
all winter. Had received help from a mission and the Salvation Army.
Quite often walked the streets all night and got coffee and rolls on the
"bread line." Appeared shiftless and showed lack of initiative and
intelligence.
No. 12.
Born in New York City of Irish parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
Did not know where his folks were. His mother was dead. Worked sometimes
as a truck driver. Had worked at farm work in New Jersey. Had travelled
a good deal. Had received help from charities in different cities. Got
caught once riding a freight train through Philadelphia and spent ten
days in jail for the offense. Said he drank when he got the chance. Now
worked around the Army Hotel and received in return his bed and one meal
ticket a day. Expected to leave the city as soon as the weather got
warmer. Evidently a kind of tramp with a tendency to become worse.
Looked wild and unreliable.
No. 13.
Born in Watertown, N. Y., of American parents. About thirty years old.
Single. Had lost track of his people. Worked as steward on ship running
to New Orleans. Was laid off three months ago. Expected to get position
as steward again in the spring. Had walked the streets quite often, not
being able to secure a bed. Had received help from several charities,
including the Army. Looked dissipated and unreliable. Had never worked
in the country.
No. 14.
Born in England. Came to this country when sixteen. People all dead.
Thirty-two years old. Single. Never worked in the country. Regular trade
was that of a painter but was not a Union man. Got odd jobs from time to
time in paint shops. Made fifty cents the previous day. Had had no
steady work for three months. Had forty dollars saved when he left his
last steady job. Spent twenty dollars on a "drunk," and the rest had
gone since. Appeared capable and fairly intelligent.
No. 15.
Born in Germany. Had come to this country with his people when young.
His people all dead except a sister who was married and lived in
Chicago. Single. About thirty-five years of age. Had no regular trade.
Had worked as laborer in both country and city. Said that the city was
best in Winter and the country in Summer. Expected to leave for the
country as soon as the weather grew warm. Appeared lazy and inefficient.
Had been aided by the Army. Evidently a tramp.
No. 16.
Born in Pittsfield, Mass., of American parents. Twenty-four years of
age. Single. Ran away from home at seventeen. Did not know where his
people were. Had no trade. Had worked at everything. Was in the navy for
four years and afterward followed the water for several years working
mostly as fireman. Never worked in the country. Had been out of steady
work for six months. Secured lodging through charity but often spent the
night on the streets. Said he drank when he could get it. Looked
dissipated and demoralized.
No. 17.
Born in New York City of German parents. About thirty years old. Married
but had left his wife. Had no regular trade. Had worked as waiter,
porter and liveryman. Made fifty cents yesterday but spent forty for
whiskey. Secured coffee and rolls on the "bread line." Had worked a
little in the country. Appeared shiftless.
No. 18.
Born in Germany. Twenty-two years of age. Single. Wrote to his people
sometimes. Always followed the water. Had sailed from different points
to China and the Philippines. Drank and lost his boat. Made his way to
New York where he had been out of work for two months. Wrote home for
money which he expected shortly. Sold some of his clothing to get a bed.
Was trying to get work on a boat. Never worked in the country. Looked
wild and dissipated.
No. 19.
Born in Boston, Mass., of Irish parents. Twenty-five years of age.
Single. Worked in machine shop when a boy and then joined the navy.
After the navy experience he had worked both on water and on land. Had
beaten his way on freight trains to different parts of the United
States. Said he often got help from missions. Often slept in the parks
in summer. Had been in jail several times. The last time for four months
for stealing. Got out in August and had done odd jobs since. Had been
several times in the Army hotel and several times in the City Lodging
House. Had worked for a day or so in the country but did not know
farming. Looked shiftless and demoralized.
No. 20.
Born in Binghamton, N. Y., of American parents. About thirty-five years
of age. Single. Trade was lasting shoes in a shoe factory. Had worked in
different cities but never in the country. Came to New York three months
ago, as his factory had laid off a large number of hands. Had done odd
jobs since. Walked the streets three nights the previous week and got
coffee and rolls on the "bread line." Got a bed for the night this time
through charity. Expected to get work in a factory when the weather
became warmer. Drank occasionally but not often. Looked competent and of
average intelligence.
No. 21.
Born in Ireland. Twenty-four years old. Single. Left home and had been
in America one year. Worked in New York as waiter and lost his position
three weeks previous to interview. Had some money saved but drank and
lost it all on the Bowery. Walked the streets for one week and
frequented the "bread line." Had a position, now, waiting on table
during the dinner hour. Used to work on a farm in Ireland, and said that
as soon as the weather got warm he would go to the country and look for
work. Looked somewhat dissipated but hopeful.
No. 22.
Born in Brooklyn, N. Y. Twenty-six years old. Single. Had no trade. Had
lost track of his people. Had travelled a good deal by means of freight
trains and had been in several jails for vagrancy. Had never worked in
the country. Said when he could get money, he spent it in drink. Secured
a bed that night through an acquaintance. Looked like a confirmed tramp
and vagrant.
No. 23.
Born in Hartford, Conn., of American parents. Twenty-one years old.
Single. Parents dead. Had a married sister living in New Jersey, but he
did not wish her to know that he was out of work. Had been working for
years as a carpenter's assistant and hoped to become a full-fledged
carpenter shortly. Had never worked in the country. Had been out of work
for three months. Spent his money in a vain trip to Philadelphia and
back looking for work. Had been doing odd jobs but had often gone
hungry. Did not like to ask for charity. Expected to work as soon as the
contractors began the spring building. Did not drink. Looked
intelligent, bright, and was a very hopeful case. Went through the
grammar school.
No. 24.
Born in Boston of Irish parents. Fifty years old. Single. Had no people
living. Trade was a hardwood finisher. Never worked in the country. Got
out of work two months ago. Left Boston then and came to New York. Had a
little money, but it was almost gone. Was crippled but could still work.
Drank some. He was gray-haired and looked older than he was.
No. 25.
Born in Ireland. About sixty years old. Had been married, but his wife
was dead, and he had no known relatives. Had been a seaman a good deal
but had no regular trade. He worked on a farm two months in the West.
Had travelled a good deal. He worked occasionally around the docks and
made just enough to maintain himself. When he had money, he spent it
rashly. Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 26.
Born in Boston of American parents. Fifty-seven years old. Single. Had
no people. His trade was ship's cook. He had never worked in the
country. Said that he was too old to get a position. He secured a bed
that night through the kindness of a friend, also out of work. Had
wandered around a great deal. He did not look dissipated but he was
gray-haired and very feeble.
No. 27.
Born in Philadelphia of German parents. About forty years old. Single.
Trade was that of a sign-painter. Said he had worked mostly in
Philadelphia and New York, and that he could get plenty of work, but
kept losing his positions through drink. Had never worked in the
country. Said he had people in Philadelphia but he did not write to
them. Looked dissipated.
No. 28.
Born near Lynn, Mass., of American parents. Twenty years old. Single.
Had no trade, but worked as dish-washer or at anything he could get.
Said that he could run an engine and had been working on a boat in New
York harbor but had to leave three weeks ago, on account of sickness.
Was trying to get into a hospital. Money nearly gone. Was born and
brought up on a farm but ran away nearly three years ago and did not
want to go back, though his father and mother were living. Said he spent
his money freely when he had it. He did not look dissipated but appeared
to be a consumptive.
No. 29.
Born in New York City of Irish parents. About thirty-five years old.
Single. Had no trade but had worked for years as driver on a horse-car.
Got out of work four months ago and had no prospect of any. Got a small
job cleaning out a saloon the previous day. Often walked the streets all
night and went to the "bread line." Did not look very dissipated but
evidently had no ambition. Did not know where his people were. Never
worked in the country.
No. 30.
Born in Ireland. Sixteen years old. Single. Did not write home. Had
trade of a cook and had been out of work for two weeks. Then had $100.00
and lost it all "on a drunk." Never worked in the country. Had walked
the streets three nights the past week. Was going to New Jersey to look
for work. Looked dissipated but otherwise capable.
No. 31.
Born in Scotland. Fifty-five years old. Married in Scotland and came
with family to this country twenty-five years ago. Had no trade. Worked
at anything he could get. Wife dead. Two children living, unable to help
him. Had travelled widely. Obtained a steady job the previous month.
Held it two weeks, then went "on a drunk." Still had enough money saved
to keep him two weeks. Said that if he did not get work before then, he
would leave New York. He knew a little about farm work in Scotland.
Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 32.
Born in New York City of Irish parents. Sixty years old. Single. People
all dead. Had no regular trade but had followed the water. Never worked
in the country. Had some cousins in New York who helped him out a
little. He looked dissipated and feeble.
No. 33.
Born in Philadelphia. American parents. Forty-three years old. Single.
Salesman. Had been out of work all winter after losing a position
through drink. Had received help from several aid societies and missions
this winter. Had walked the streets a good many nights. Said he never
worked in the country. Looked dissipated and unreliable.
No. 34.
Born in South Carolina. American parents. Twenty years old. Single. Did
not write home. Said he ran away and his people were angry. Had no
trade. Never worked in the country. Had walked the streets two nights
this week. Looked intelligent but wild.
No. 35.
Born in Newark, N. J., English parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
Had no trade but worked as a janitor. Was in the navy for three years
and had travelled widely. Had been out of work one month. Never worked
in the country. Said he worked for a while and then "went off on a
drunk." His people in Newark sent him money once in a while. Looked
dissipated.
No. 36.
Born in Ireland. Thirty-eight years old. Single. When seven years old
came to America with his people. Had two brothers and one sister in
Schenectady, N. Y. Parents dead. His people did not aid him as he drank
so much. Never worked in the country. Got an odd job now and then.
Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 37.
Born in England. Thirty-six years old. Single. Came to America with his
people when twelve years old. Went to Fall River, Mass., where his
people lived. Ran away from home at eighteen and had followed the water
since. Never worked in the country. Was paid off last Saturday. Went on
a drunk on the Bowery and lost his money and his job. Walked the streets
two nights, but received help from his people. Looked a little
dissipated but capable.
No. 39.
Born in Yonkers, N. Y. American parents. Forty years old. Single. Father
lived in Yonkers but was unable to help him. Plumber by trade. Did not
belong to the Union. Was out of work for one month the past winter, but
now had a job and was renting a room in the Army hotel. Never worked in
the country. Looked like a hard drinker, but otherwise capable.
No. 40.
Born in New Haven, Conn. American parents. Twenty-five years old.
Single. Relatives in New Haven poor. Was a telegraph operator and worked
at that trade for two years, but lost position on account of bad health.
Had worked on a farm quite a little, and said as soon as the weather got
warmer he was going to the country. He now had a room at the Army hotel
but his money was nearly gone. Looked intelligent and capable.
No. 41.
Born in New York City. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single.
Did not know where his relatives were. Had trade as truck driver, and
since losing a steady job two months previously had worked at odd jobs
about the docks. Spent two days at an Army Industrial Home and was now
at the Army Hotel. He looked like a hard drinker. Never worked in the
country.
No. 42.
Born in Scotland. Twenty-three years old. Single. Relatives lived in
Scotland and sent him a little money sometimes. Had no regular trade.
Had worked on the water a good deal. Came to New York two years
previously, and had no steady work since. Had been nine months in the
hospital from which he had been discharged two weeks. Expected to return
to the hospital. Looked like a very sick man, but not dissipated.
No. 43.
Born in New York City. American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single.
No people alive. Had no trade. Had travelled around the world and never
worked when he could help it. Never worked in the country. Looked like a
regular tramp and hard drinker.
No. 44.
Born in Newark, N. J. French parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had
two sisters in Brooklyn. Had no regular trade but had been working for
three weeks in a grocery store and thus had a room in the Army Hotel.
Never worked in the country. Looked capable and intelligent.
No. 45.
Born in Brooklyn. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had
people in Brooklyn who were helping him. Had no trade but had worked all
his life at odd jobs. Could not work steadily because of bad habits.
Never worked in the country. Looked like a hard drinker.
No. 46.
Born in Jersey City. Irish parents. Thirty-five years old. Single. Was a
painter by trade but did not belong to the Union. Had been out of work
three months. Some friends gave him clothes and a little money. Looked
intelligent but dissipated.
No. 47.
Born in Brooklyn. Irish parents. Thirty years old. Single. Had no trade.
Worked on a farm in Long Island and hoped to go to the country shortly.
Had had no steady work the past Winter. Had been in the Army Industrial
Home six times during the Winter. Looked shiftless and dissipated.
No. 48.
Born in Lowell, Mass. Italian parents. Twenty years old. Single. People
lived in Lowell. Had no trade. Never worked in the country. Came to New
York two weeks previously with a little money, but this was soon spent
and he had walked the streets two nights. Entered the Army Hotel through
charity. Had written home for money and expected to return there. His
appearance was very good.
No. 49.
Born in New York. American parents. Forty years old. Married. Separated
from his wife three months ago because of his drinking. Had no trade.
Never worked in the country. Had been out of work three months. Picked
up odd jobs now and then, and thus secured a bed. Looked like a hard
drinker.
No. 50.
Born in Germany. Seventeen years old. Single. Had people in Germany who
were unable to help him. Had been in this country nine months. Said he
was on a farm in New York State but ran away. The Salvation Army was
keeping him, and he worked a little around the Hotel. Looked like a
promising boy but rather wild.
No. 51.
Born in Denver, Col. American parents. Twenty-three years old. Single.
Had people at home who sent him money now and then. Was an iron-worker.
Belonged to the Union, but said the Union had not helped him any. Had
been out of work some time. Never worked in the country. Had travelled a
good deal in the United States. Looked bright and promising.
No. 52.
Born in Davenport, Washington. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had people
at home where he had sent for money. Had travelled widely. Came to New
York five weeks ago from Panama where he had been working for eight
months. Had to leave on account of sickness. Had $100.00 when he came to
New York but spent nearly all on doctors bills. Still had a little left.
Said he had worked a good deal on a farm. Looked capable and
intelligent.
No. 53.
American, born in New York. Thirty years old. Single. People dead.
Bartender. Did not belong to the Union. Was out of work for one month
until two weeks previous to interview, when he got a job as bartender.
Was still working and had a room at the Army Hotel. Said he would be all
right it he could leave drink alone. He never worked in the country.
No. 54.
Born in New York. Irish parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single. Had
quarrelled with his people who lived in New York. Painter by trade. Lost
his membership in the Union because he did not pay his dues. Had had no
steady work for a year, but had wandered all over the country doing very
little work, but receiving aid from charitable societies. Said he liked
the warm weather, so that he could sleep in the parks. Looked shiftless
and a typical tramp.
No. 55.
Born in Norway. About thirty years old. Single. Had people in Norway who
did not help him. Came to New York from his native land two months
previously. A carpenter by trade. Was working in Jersey and lost
position two weeks previously. Had money in his pocket and was evidently
wise enough to keep it. Conversed in broken English. Said he worked in
the country in Norway. Looked like a capable man.
No. 56.
Born in Scotland. Forty-five years old. Single. Came to this country
with his people when he was nine years old. People had since died.
Bookkeeper by trade. Had been out of work all Winter. The Scotch Aid
Society was keeping him, giving him bed and meal tickets. Said he had
received help from four different missions in New York. Looked incapable
and shiftless. Never worked in the country.
No. 57.
Born in Jersey City. American parents. Twenty-eight years old. Single.
Had no trade. Did not work if he could help it. Came here from the West
by means of freight trains. Never worked in the country. Looked like a
regular tramp.
No. 58.
Born in Chicago. Single. Thirty-years old. Had friends in Chicago who
sent him a little money. Had no trade. Never did hard work. Got odd jobs
and received aid from missions. Said he was a Christian and liked to
attend meetings. Had a room in the Army Hotel. Said he had been staying
there off and on for two years. Looked stupid and incapable.
No. 59.
Born in Denver, Col. Fifty years old. Single. Plumber by trade. Belonged
to the Union but left eight months previously and had not paid his dues
since. Was in business for himself at one time, but lost it through
drink. Said he got help from the missions whenever he could. Never
worked in the country. Hoped to go West again shortly. Looked feeble and
dissipated.
No. 60.
American. Born in Springfield, Mass. Fifty-five years old. Single. Said
his people in Springfield were wealthy but would have nothing to do with
him. Had no trade. In New York all Winter. Had walked the streets a good
many nights. Never worked in the country. Charity Organization Society
had helped him, besides other organizations. Said he had consumption.
Looked very weak and dissipated.
No. 61.
Born in America. Jewish parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
Stone-cutter by trade. Said he worked at the Insurance business at
times. Had been out of work nearly two months. Never worked in the
country. Looked bright and capable.
No. 62.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio. American parents. Twenty-six years old. Single.
People lived in Cleveland, but did not help him. Had worked on a farm
nearly all his life. Left the farm two years previously and had wandered
most of the time since. He expected to be sent to the country by the
Bowery Mission shortly. Looked shiftless but not dissipated.
No. 63.
Born in New York. American parents. About fifty years old. Married. Said
his people were dead. Had no regular trade. Did office work, but was
nearly always out of work. Said he was a Christian. He evidently
followed the missions and "got saved" every time he needed help. Never
worked in the country. Looked shiftless and inefficient.
No. 64.
Born in Brooklyn. English parents. Thirty years old. Married. Quarrelled
with his wife five years previously and left her. Painter by trade. Did
not belong to the Union. Had not worked all Winter. Said he had been all
around the world and had beaten his way wherever he went. Had been in
jail several times, for vagrancy and drunkness. Never worked in the
country. Looked like a tramp.
No. 65.
Born in Maine. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. Had
people in Maine from whom he expected help. Barber by trade. Came to New
York three weeks previously. Met some friends on the Bowery and lost all
his money. The Army was helping him. He had worked somewhat in the
country. Looked very stupid.
No. 66.
Born in Scotland. About sixty years old. Single. Had no people. Had no
trade. In this country for forty years. Out of work all Winter. The
Scotch Aid Society had been keeping him now for three weeks. He never
worked in the country. He looked like a regular vagrant.
No. 67.
Born in Boston. American parents. Twenty-four years old. Single. A
waiter. Had wandered a good deal, and beaten his way by freight trains.
Came to New York from the West one month previously. Had not worked
since, but had been aided by the missions and the Army. Evidently did
not like to work.
No. 68.
Born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Irish parents. About thirty-two years old.
Single. Had no trade. Came to New York two weeks previously with some
money which he got from his people. He had sent home for more. Worked
somewhere in the country. Said he drank periodically and did not like to
work steadily. Looked very shiftless.
No. 69.
Born in Ireland. Twenty-eight years old. Single. Had lost track of his
people. Had been in this country eight years. Had no trade. Had had no
steady work all Winter. Drank a good deal. Never worked in the country.
Looked very wild.
No. 70.
Born in New Orleans. Spanish parents. About twenty years old. Single.
Left home two years ago and took to life on the water. Left the boat in
New York one month previously and had not worked since. Said he liked to
sail and see the world. His people lived in New Orleans, and he expected
help from them. Never worked in the country. Looked capable.
No. 71.
Born in New York. American parents. About thirty years old. Single. Had
trade as a bartender. Belonged to the Union. Lost a steady job through
drink three weeks ago. Was now working four hours a day. Had a room in
the Army Hotel. Said he was going to change his line of business because
he drank too much. His appearance was good. Never worked in the country.
No. 72.
Born in Germany. Looked like a Jew. About twenty-five years old. Single.
Had no trade. Had been out of work three months. Was now selling old
clothing and other things around the Army Hotel. Never worked in the
country. Evidently lazy and incapable.
No. 73.
Born in Illinois. American parents. About twenty-eight years old.
Single. Ran away from home and was ashamed to go back. Had no trade but
had worked a good deal as cook on board ship. Had been out of work six
weeks. Said he was sick and had about $200.00, but it did not last long.
He was working round the Army Hotel a little every day, for which he
got his bed and one meal ticket. Never worked in the country. Said he
was going to join the navy. Looked bright and capable.
No. 74.
Born in Lithuania. Twenty-three years old. Single. People at home were
poor. Had no trade. In New York three years. Out of work two months.
Obtained clothes in various ways and sold them. Was not dissipated, but
looked lazy. Never worked in the country.
No. 75.
Born in Yonkers, N. Y. American parents. About sixty-five years old.
Single. Was an old sailor but had not been to sea for over a year. Was
working two days a week as janitor. Said he had been a hard drinker in
the past, but he did not drink much now. He looked aged, but still
capable. Never worked in the country.
No. 76.
Born in Boston. Irish parents. About twenty-five years old. Single. Had
no trade. People did not recognize him. Had travelled all over the
country. Had been in jail twice. Never worked in the country. Looked
like a tramp.
SOME FACTS BROUGHT OUT IN THE 76 HOTEL EXAMPLES.
Nationality. No. Percentage.
American parentage 35 .461
Irish parentage 20 .263
English and Scotch parentage 9 .119
German parentage 8 .105
Other countries 4 .052
Married men 7 .095
Single men 69 .905
Worked a little in country 13 .169
Worked considerably in country 5 .065
Men with regular trades 26 .342[56]
Union men 4 .052
Men who looked efficient 15 .197
Men who looked semi-efficient 14 .184
Men who looked inefficient 47 .619
Ages.
15-20 4 .052
20-30 42 .553
30-40 16 .211
40-50 6 .079
50-60 7 .092
60-70 1 .013
Length of time out of work.
Less than 1 mo. 12 .157
More than 1 mo. 13 .171
More than 2 mos. 11 .145
More than 3 mos. 40 .527
FACTS BROUGHT OUT IN THE 109 INDUSTRIAL EXAMPLES AND THE 76 HOTEL
EXAMPLES COMBINED.
Nationality. No. Percentage.
American parentage 76 .411
Irish parentage 50 .270
German parentage 26 .141
English and Scotch parentage 18 .098
Italian parentage 4 .022
Swedish parentage 4 .038
Other countries, parentage 7 .20
Married men 24 .149
Single men 161 .851
Worked a little in country 29 .156
Worked considerably in country 12 .016
Men with regular trades 57 .309
Union men 10 .054
Men who looked efficient 53 .287
Men who looked semi-efficient 35 .189
Men who looked inefficient 97 .524
Ages.
15-20 6 .032
20-30 97 .525
30-40 39 .210
40-50 26 .140
50-60 50 .082
60-70 2 .011
Length of time out of work.
Less than 1 mo. 20 .108
More than 1 mo. 30 .163
More than 2 mos. 27 .145
More than 3 mos. 108 .584
FOOTNOTES:
[38] "How the Other Half Lives," p. 38.
[39] This differentiation is more pronounced in the United States, since
the work has been extended here more than in other countries.
[40] For adverse criticism see "The Social Relief Work of the S. A.," p.
9.
[41] At the Burne St. Shelter, the largest in London, one large
dormitory has 288 beds and another 265.
[42] For rooms, special rates are given by the week; from some of the
examples given at the end of this chapter, it will be seen that these
are occupied by men with partial or poorly paid employment.
[43] In London, the Army has a mattress factory which supplies its
institutions.
[44] More headway is being made in this direction in the Industrial
Homes where the population is more permanent. We found in one home in
Chicago that the men were organized in the form of a club, and enjoyed
social meetings together. Also, at the largest Industrial Home in
London, called "The Spa Road Elevator," we found a regular cricket club
organized which played cricket games with other clubs.
[45] Good examples of this are to be found in the Middlesex Street Hotel
and the Burne Street Hotel, London. The former hotel is regularly
provided, by a large baker firm, with food, which is one day stale, for
a very low figure.
[46] The higher class hotel for women is to be found in Los Angeles and
Boston.
[47] From an interview with a leading officer.
[48] These exceptions are certain of the lower class hotels where
attempts along this line seem to fail.
[49] See "How the Other Half Lives," Ch. VIII. See also "Social Relief
Work of the S. A.," p. 10.
[50] See examples given at the end of this chapter, p. 77.
[51] See the tables, pp. 97 and 98, showing percentages of these men who
had come from the country. For the work of Mr. Fox see p. 113.
[52] See examples of these men, p. 77 fl.
[53] See Giddings' "Principles of Sociology," p. 127.
[54] Some light may be thrown on this subject by a perusal of Mr. W. H.
Dawson's book entitled "The German Workman," although conditions are
evidently vastly different in this country and England from what they
are in Germany.
[55] See examples numbered 4. 5. 9. 23 and others, on p. 78 and fl.
[56] While this percentage is larger than that in the Industrial Homes
(see p. 62), 62 per cent. of the examples in the Hotels having regular
trades were dissipated, mostly victims of drink, as against 19 per cent.
in the Industrial examples.
CHAPTER III.
THE FARM COLONIES OF THE SALVATION ARMY.
So many times has the cry been raised "back to the land!", so optimistic
have so many reformers become over the hope that the population could be
diverted from the city to the country, and so loudly have certain
enthusiasts prophesied a surely successful issue to colonizing
enterprises, that the Salvation Army colonies form a very interesting
and profitable field of investigation. What is needed is an experiment
that will prove or disprove the prophesied success of taking the people
back to the land. Once that is proved, with the great Northwest of
America almost untouched, with immense tracts of good land in Africa and
other continents, and with the United States about to open up millions
of acres of land, made fertile by means of irrigation, we shall be ready
to act and get rid of the surplus city population. But first we must
have the proof, and the question before us is whether the Salvation Army
has sufficiently proved the case.
The matter was agitated before the English Government to such an extent
in 1905 that the Rhodes Trustees, contributing sufficient funds to cover
the expense, the Secretary of State for the Colonies nominated Mr. Rider
Haggard, the novelist, to visit the United States and inspect the three
Salvation Army colonies there, to make a report on the same, and to
include in this report any practical suggestions which might occur to
him. The following words were used in the letter of commission: "It
appears to the Secretary of State that if these experiments are found to
be successful, some analogous system might to great advantage be applied
in transferring the urban population of the United Kingdom to different
parts of the United Kingdom."[57]
Mr. Haggard visited the three colonies in the United States, and made a
report to the English Government, favoring strongly the movement, and
recommending that the Government take it up, provide the capital and
utilize all ready existing organizations, such as the Salvation Army, in
carrying out its scheme. The matter was referred by the Government to
the Departmental Committee, who, after reviewing it and looking into the
question in 1906, issued a long report in which they discountenanced Mr.
Haggard's scheme on the ground that:
1. It was better for settlers from England to be scattered about
with experienced farmers as neighbors than to be placed in a number
together.
2. The Salvation Army or any similar organization was not a
desirable management for a colony dependent on money advanced by the
Imperial Government.
3. That Ft. Romie and Ft. Amity, the American farm colonies of the
Salvation Army, were not precedents upon which a large scheme of
colonization could be based.[58]
The Committee gave reasons for arriving at the above conclusions, into
which, for the present, we need not enter, but their conclusions are
suggestive, and may be borne in mind while we make our study of the
subject.
Gen. Booth, in his plans as outlined in "Darkest England," provided for
three main divisions of the work for the unemployed poor, viz., the City
Colony, the Country Colony and the Over-sea Colony, signifying by these
terms the City Industrial Work, the Country Industrial Colony, and the
Farm Colony.[59] The last named was to be on a larger scale on some
Colonial territory of England. This division has tended to persist in
the United States, and this country has been the field for special
experiments along this line. There are three Colonies in the United
States: Fort Herrick, situated near Cleveland, Ohio; Fort Amity,
situated in Southeast Colorado, and Ft. Romie, which is located at
Soledad in the Salinas Valley, California. At first there was no
differentiation between these Colonies, but latterly, the Colony at Ft.
Herrick, the smallest of the three, has been managed as an Industrial
Colony, and the other two have continued as regular Farm Colonies. The
plan of "Commander" Booth-Tucker, in charge of the Salvation Army in the
United States from 1896 until 1904, and the originator of these
Colonies, was, in brief, as he states it, to take the waste labor in
families, and place it upon the waste land by means of waste capital,
and thereby to convert this trinity of waste into a unity of
production.[60] His waste labor was the family struggling in the crowded
city; his waste land, the large tracts of public land about to be opened
up by irrigation; and his waste capital, if such a term can be used, was
the capital lying idle, or at least, making 2-1/2 or 3 per cent., when
according to his estimate, it could yield 5 per cent. The principles
which he laid down were as follows:
1. There must be sufficiency of capital.
2. The land must be carefully selected and laid out.
3. The colonists must be well selected.
4. There must be able supervision.
5. The principle of home ownership must be followed.
6. God must be recognized.
From our investigations at Ft. Romie and Ft. Amity, we arrived at the
conclusion that No. 4 and No. 6 were the only ones thoroughly carried
out; that there was a weakness in the amount of capital (Prin. No. 1);
that an unfortunate selection of land was made (Prin. No. 2); that the
successful colonists did not entirely represent the class from which we
should wish them to be taken (Prin. No. 3); and that ownership gave way
largely to a system of renting-out by the Army (Prin. No. 5). For
verification of this, see the typical cases at the end of the chapter.
Commander Booth-Tucker advanced the argument, which is sound, to the
effect that, when entire families were taken from the city and placed
on the land, the tendency to return to the city would be overcome. It
has been the experience of philanthropists, that when single men and
women were transferred from the city to the country, they always tended
to return, the reason being due to an acquired fondness of the
individual for intimate association with his fellows,[61] but when a man
has his wife and children, together with a plot of land and a home which
he may call his own, the attraction toward the city is overcome, by a
stronger one which keeps him where he is. Of course, this would answer
for the one generation only.
Leaving out the small colony at Ft. Herrick, Ohio, which was changed to
an Industrial Colony, and which is considered in the chapter on the
Industrial Work, let us examine more closely the Farm Colonies at Ft.
Amity, Col., and Ft. Romie, Cal. The larger enterprise was set on foot
in Colorado, in 1898, where a tract of 2,000 acres was secured at a cost
of $46,000.00. In this year, fourteen families were brought from Chicago
and placed on the bare, unimproved prairie, where, however, there was
abundant water supply carried by a large irrigation company. These
colonists were all family men with two exceptions, and nine of the heads
of families had either been on farms or had worked on farms in the
past.[62] They were in narrow circumstances financially, and the
transportation expenses of all except one of these families were paid by
the Army. With this migration as a basis, the number of colonists was
greatly increased by families from different cities and also from the
surrounding country, until in 1905, there were thirty-eight families.
Several were brought to the Colony as experienced men to act as
pace-setters for the others.[63] Some came with a small amount of
capital.
Owing to the fact that the land was covered by a heavy sod which needed
considerable working, no crops were raised the first year, and only
fair crops the second. During the first year, the colonists were
supported by cash loans which were charged against them. After the first
two years, crops were good[64], and the outlook was promising, in spite
of certain insect pests, but after about seven years a great difficulty
showed itself. The land on which the Colony was located was alkali land,
and bottom land, without any drainage. The result of constant irrigation
was that the alkali rose to the surface in larger and larger quantities,
until no good crop could be raised. The only salvation was to drain the
land and thus rid it of the blighting alkali. This meant an expense of
from $30.00 to $40.00 an acre. At the present time draining is being
rapidly pushed forward and is proving very beneficial, but it can be
easily seen what a discouragement the alkali has proved to the
colonists, and what an additional expense is laid upon them and the
Colony; an expense which it will take years of good crops to
overcome.[65]
Up to 1905, about eighteen families, not satisfied with the results
obtained, had moved away, and their places had been filled by others. A
very few of the departing families moved because of ill-health; some
thought that they could do better elsewhere as farmers; some even had
considerable money as a result of their holdings in the Colony[66].
Since 1905, there has been a good deal of changing, and at present a
large part of the Colony land is rented out by the Army to settlers;
some being from the country, and some from the city[67]. A small number
of the old pioneer colonists still remain and have done well with their
holdings in spite of all difficulties.[68]
The Army stated in 1905, that the financial standing of this Colony
showed a net loss to the Army of $23,111.50, and a gain to the colonists
of $37,943.77. It considered its loss a cheap price for the experience
gained, but thought that it had erred in giving the colonists too
liberal terms.[69] By this time the loss to the Army is considerably
greater, owing to the increased expense of drainage.[70]
At the present time (January, 1908), the population of this Colony is
about 200. Nearly all the land is occupied in one way or another, either
by colonists who own, or partially own, their land, or by renters, who
are also called colonists. Several homes are vacant, but it is expected
that they will be filled by renters before the Spring season opens. The
little village consists of several stores, a blacksmith shop, a
substantial railroad depot, a post office, a small hotel and a school
house. A good many of the homes are built of stone, quarried on the
Colony, and present a good appearance. Up on the higher land is situated
a large stone structure, built by the colonists at an expense to the
Army of $18,000.00, and first used as an orphanage, then as a
sanitorium, and now abandoned. Irrigation ditches with a good flow of
water are in evidence, and preparations for draining the land are under
way. That this is necessary is forced upon us by the many white patches
scattered here and there where the water, having evaporated, has left
the destructive alkali salt on the surface of the ground.
When we come to consider the other Farm Colony, Ft. Romie, situated at
Soledad, Cal., in the beautiful Salinas Valley, we receive a more
favorable impression, although we find that the Colony here has had many
difficulties with which to contend. The Colony is smaller than that at
Ft. Amity, but the land is better. The original 500 acres has been
increased by the addition of a lease of 150 acres with the option of
buying. In the year 1898, eighteen families were taken from the poor of
San Francisco and placed upon the Colony, but unforeseen conditions
prevailed, and, as a result, but one of these families remains
to-day.[71] The great mistake was made of settling colonists upon land
which needed irrigation, before that irrigation was provided. This
mistake was brought out the more vividly, in that the three first years
of the Colony's existence were years of drought, bringing evil to most
parts of the State, and especially to that land which, like the Colony
land, only received a slight rain-fall at best. The result of the first
years of this experiment, then, was an abandoning of the land by the
colonists, and a loss to the Army of $27,000.00.
The experiment was continued, however, but with very different
conditions. An excellent irrigation system was established, and a new
lot of settlers brought to the Colony; not, this time, from the city,
but from the surrounding country. These people were poor, but accustomed
to the land. The result, as might be expected this time, was more
favorable. It was stated in 1905 that no colonists had left since
1901.[72] In May, 1903, there were nineteen families ranged according to
nationality as follows:--Thirteen American; Two Scandinavian; One Finn;
One German-Swiss; One Dutch and one Italian. There are now twenty-five
families, and about one hundred and forty-five persons on the Colony.
The nucleus of a town is to be seen with two or three stores, a
blacksmith shop, and a good sized Town Hall. Near the Colony is a school
house with an attendance of about fifty children, most of them being
colonists' children.
An irrigation plant has been established and is now owned and worked by
the colonists, formed in a joint-stock company. The colonists raise
beets, potatoes, alfalfa, fruits of different kinds, and stock. A large
part of their income is derived from the dairying industry. They ship
their cream to a creamery at Salinas, about twenty-five miles distant.
Much could be said about the healthy appearance and happy life of the
members of this Colony, but as they have not been brought from the
unhealthy, squalid misery of the city, this is not of so much interest.
The women work in the vegetable gardens and with the stock, as well as
in the home; and the older children help their parents.
Along the lines of co-operation, in both colonies there are interesting
features. At stated intervals, the colonists meet in the form of a
Farmers' Club, and discuss questions relative to the success of their
individual farms and to the Colony as a whole. They also have lecturers
come from a distance to address them on the latest phases of
horticulture, agriculture, fertilization and irrigation. The colonists
also embark in business enterprises like the stock company formed in the
California Colony for the control and management of the irrigation
plant. In this plant, one of the colonists is engineer, and another the
superintendent of water supply. Another important institution of this
same Colony is the Rochdale store, which does most of the retail
business in the Colony. This store, in its management and organization,
follows the co-operative Rochdale system, which has attained strength in
England and is growing in the United States. The store is incorporated
in the State of California as a co-operative corporation, and holds a
membership in the State Rochdale Wholesale Co. It has already extended
beyond the limits of the Colony and counts among its members others than
colonists. The colonists also take active interest in local affairs of
all kinds. In one colony, the rural mail carrier is a colonist, and the
school teacher the wife of a colonist. At Ft. Amity, a colonist is now
sheriff of the County for the second time.
Social and religious life is also fostered in the Colonies. A variety of
religious sects is represented, and no compulsion is exercised towards
any one of them. At Ft. Romie the Army has an organized corps, which
holds meetings once in the week and once on Sunday, also having a
Sunday school for the children. At Ft. Amity similar conditions prevail.
On both colonies a good moral influence is found and there are no evil
surroundings; hence in neither colony is there a local officer of the
law. In the contract which every colonist signs on taking his land there
is a temperance clause to this effect:
"And party of the second part hereby agrees to and with party of the
first part that, in consideration of the benefits derived from this
contract, he will not bargain, sell, barter or trade upon said land
any intoxicating liquors, or otherwise dispose of as beverages any
intoxicants, at any place upon said premises or any part thereof, or
permit the selling of the same, or any illegal traffic or any act or
acts prohibited by law."
The same clause goes on to provide for the return of the land to the
Army in case of its being violated.
From this brief description it is seen that much of the success of these
colonies must rest on the management. The manager must be large-hearted
and broad-minded. He must be supervisor, instructor, moderator,
counsellor and friend. The Army has been very fortunate in placing fit
men in these positions, and if in other things it had been equally
fortunate, its colonies would have made a better showing.
As regards the financial methods of the Army in dealing with the
colonists, the following extract from a memorandum of information issued
by the Ft. Romie Colony, California, gives typical information.
1. Land: Twenty acres of land are sold to each colonist. The price of
unimproved land at this date, 1904, is $100.00 per acre. This price,
however, is liable to be increased at any time.[73]
2. Buildings: Houses, barns and other buildings are constructed by the
colonists. Materials are furnished in quantities by the Army according
to the size of the colonist's family, somewhat after the following
schedule. For a family with one or two small children, a two-room
house, about 14×24 outside measurement, for which we appropriate not
over $125.00. This is to include a small barn or shed for horses, cows,
etc. For a family with three or four small children, a three-room house
about 18×24, costing with barn, etc., not over $175.00. For a larger
family, perhaps a four or five-room house, limiting the appropriation
for the same to $225.00. Colonists can suit themselves as to the style
of the house, but must satisfy the manager that it can be erected within
the limits of the appropriation named. The colonist can add to the size
of the house as he gets on his financial feet.
3. Terms: On land breaking and other permanent land improvements, the
colonists are given 20 years' time. The principal and interest are
payable in installments each year.
4. Outfit: To colonists unable to purchase them, the Army furnishes the
necessary implements and stock, consisting of the following: Team of
horses, cow, hogs, chicken, seed, etc., secured by chattel mortgage. The
interest on outfit and loans is fixed at 6 per cent. It is expected that
the principal and interest will be repaid in installments each year. All
outfits and loans are to be repaid within five years.[74]
We have briefly outlined the most prominent features of the Farm
Colonies, but the final questions now arise, is the movement sound; what
does it signify, and what development does the future hold for it? For
one thing we must not be led astray by the statements of the Army. The
continued existence of the colonies, in the face of great difficulties,
through the term of eight or nine years they have been carried on, is
not in itself an argument for the soundness of the movement. From ocean
to ocean and throughout the world, the Army has advertised its success
in colonizing enterprises, and hence it had a set purpose in maintaining
and continuing its colonies, even though they should be failures from
our point of view, and even though they should not fulfil the purpose
originally intended by the Army itself. As has been remarked with regard
to the industrial colonies, so here, we would emphasize the fact that
the Army has no need to fear acknowledgement that the colonies have not
been successful, because it has other credit upon which to depend for
its reputation for usefulness. After looking at it from all sides, we
come to the conclusion that the two experiments considered in these
pages do not justify an extension of this work. This conclusion is based
on several reasons:
1. Many of the successful colonists are not men who needed help the
most, and many are not from the City at all.
2. The colonies have been, and are, an undue expense to the
organization.
3. The same amount of energy and money would be more beneficial to
the unemployed if used along other lines.
4. The principles advanced as essential by the originators of the
movement were only partially carried out.[75]
Our first reason is based partly on personal investigation, and partly
on the statements of the Army itself.[76] There are, as will be seen
from examples given, certain places where families from the city without
previous experience have made a success of the colonies, but these are
greatly in the minority[77]. If, in the case of the California Colony at
Fort Romie, when seventeen out of the original number of families taken
from the city, left on account of the lack of water, the next group of
settlers had again been chosen from the city, after water had been
secured, a more conclusive experiment would have resulted, but instead,
the second group were, "farmers by profession."[78] This looks as though
the Army itself at that time doubted the ability of the city families to
succeed on the land. At any rate, the fact that the majority of the
families at the present time on the colonies are not from the city at
all, shows that, as an experiment of removing the surplus population of
the city to the country, the colonies are a failure. But further, when
we take the minority, the families now in the colonies who came from the
city, we find that, in most cases, they are not people who needed help
the most, and those who have succeeded on the colonies, have succeeded
because of elements in their character which would have led them to
succeed in the long run anywhere, with favorable environment. In this
case then, the only advantage in taking these people from the city was
to leave more room there for somebody else, and this is not much of an
advantage, since that "somebody else" is quite likely to come from the
country to the city, and thus not be one of the city's submerged ones at
all. Again, if, as we have just stated, men succeed in the country
because of the same elements of character which would lead them to
succeed anywhere, then the reason for their failing to succeed in the
city would lie in an unfavorable environment, and to change their
environment, it is not necessary to carry on a system of paternalistic
colonies. This leads us to the question of assisted emigration, which we
will discuss in connection with our third objection to the colonies.
As regards the second reason, that of undue expense, Mr. Haggard in
1905, found a loss to the Army of $50,000. While, since that time, in
the case of the California Colony, there has been no further loss, yet
in the case of the colony in Colorado, there has been much expenditure
which should be added to the original loss. The Army states that it has
been too liberal in its dealings with its colonists, but we note that,
in spite of its liberality, there has been a constant tendency for the
colonists to leave, hoping to do better elsewhere.[79] The Army might
reply that this is no argument, and that the fact that they were able to
leave with funds on hand was in itself a proof of liberality on the
Army's part, but to prove the success of its experiment, it must show
that those who have left have done better elsewhere, and not drifted
back once more to the city. The Army might further state that in future
a better selection of land might be made, and that other unfavorable
things might be avoided, but we are dealing here with these two colonies
and not future experiments. As regards such, there would always be
unforeseen difficulties of every kind.[80]
Coming to the third reason for our conclusion, the reason that money
might be expended in other ways with greater advantage to the
unemployed, and with greater relief to the congestion of cities, we
refer again to the recommendations of the Departmental Committee
appointed by the English government to consider Commissioner Haggard's
report.[81] In their report they recommend a system of emigration from
the city to the English possessions, such as Canada, aided by the
government, in preference to the system of colonization. With this we
agree. A man once transported from the city and then thrown on his own
resources in a favorable rural environment, will be more likely to
succeed than a man who is taken out with a number of others to form a
colony. The man left to his own resources will rise to the occasion, as
so many have done in both Canada and the United States, who have
migrated from city to country and made successful farmers and citizens,
while, on the other hand, the man who feels dependent on an
organization, which is responsible to the public for his success, and
its own, will blame it for his own lack of efficiency. The Army itself
claims a successful work done along the lines of emigration. In 1905,
through the agency of the Army, 2,500 men were sent out from London to
Canada. This number has since increased every year until in 1907 over
15,000 men were sent out. Many other emigration societies have been very
successful in this work.[82] The emigrants sent out with some
assistance, in many cases, gain new ambitions in life and make
pronounced successes on the new soil. As regards the cost, the following
quotation may be submitted. "The cost of emigration to Canada from
England does not amount to more than £10 a head, and some of the
societies, especially those maintained by women, seem to be successful
in securing repayment of at least a part of the money advanced. In other
words, $300,000.00, which Mr. Rider Haggard assumes as a necessary sum
for forming a colony of 1,500 families, would enable at least 6,000
families to go out as emigrants."[83] With regard to conditions in the
large cities of the United States and other countries, we believe that
the same arguments would apply, and that, in every case, assisted
emigration will be found far more feasible and beneficial than any
system of colonization. Again, for reasons already given, in addition to
there being six thousand families aided by emigration, for the same sum
as fifteen hundred families could be by colonization, the relief given
would be far preferable. In other words, emigration has been proved
successful, while colonization has not.
Coming back to the conclusions reached by Mr. Haggard on his
recommendations to the English government: Mr. Haggard, after stating
that the two experiments, outside of a slight failure of finance, seemed
to him to be eminently successful, says that, given certain requisites,
"It will, I consider, be strange if success is not attained even in
the case of poor persons taken from the cities, provided that they
are suited in character, the victims of misfortune and circumstances
rather than of vice, having had some acquaintance or connection with
the land in their past life, and having also an earnest desire to
raise themselves and their children in the world."
Now two of the "requisites" he mentions are, "that the land should be
cheap as well as suitable" and "that markets also with accessibility
and convenience of location should be borne in mind," two rather
difficult requisites to be found together. Again, in the above quotation
he lays down other provisos; among these being one that the people
selected should have had some acquaintance or connection with the land
in their past lives, a rather indefinite proviso in itself, but, from a
list of poor men out of work or in irregular or casual employment in
London and the other large cities in England in 1901 and 1906, compiled
by Mr. Wilson Fox, we find that out of a total of 8,793 such men, ninety
per cent were town born.[84] We also find in New York City in the spring
of 1908, that out of a total of 185 destitute men, about eighty per cent
were town born.[85] That then leaves ten per cent in the case of England
and twenty per cent in the case of New York City from which to select or
choose the ones needed for a colonizing enterprise.
Mr. Fox has also shown in his investigations:
1. That the countrymen who migrate to London are mainly the best youth
of the villages.
2. That the incomers usually get the pick of the posts, especially
outdoor trades.
3. Country immigrants do not to any considerable extent directly recruit
the town unemployed who are, in the main, the sediment deposited at the
bottom of the scale, as the physique and power of application of the
town population tends to deteriorate.[86]
The conclusion is then, that it would be difficult to get the men
according to Mr. Haggard's requirements, and difficult to get the land
according to his requirements, and even if such were obtained, for
reasons already stated there is no justification for a large colonizing
enterprise in the two experiments described in this chapter.
Examples of Colonists taken from Ft. Amity by the author in January,
1908.
No. 1.
Elderly man. Widower. Had three grown-up children in the Colony at
various times. Had one son a colonist with farm of his own. Was not a
Salvationist. Came from Chicago where he was a tailor. Had a farm near
the railroad depot which he considered valuable. Had two small houses.
Rented one. Raised alfalfa. Was sole agent for a coal company. Claimed
he made $1,500.00 last year, mostly in the coal business. Said draining
now being done on the Colony was very expensive. Considered the Colony a
good thing.
No. 2.
Middle aged man. Married. One child. Had experience in the country
before coming to the Colony. Had forty acres of Colony land which he had
rented, and which he wished to sell at $106.00 per acre. Had mostly
worked for the railroad in the station office. Wished to leave the
Colony. Said he could not raise a vegetable garden owing to alkali and
insect pests.
No. 3.
A new man. About thirty years old. One year out from Chicago, where he
worked at different trades. Had wife and one child. Rented a house on
the Colony and worked in one of the Colony stores. Had no money saved
and saw no immediate chance of betterment. Liked the country better than
the city, because his wife had better health.
No. 4.
Young married man. No children. Son of a Colonist and married to a
daughter of a Colonist, whose father was sheriff of the County. Had good
looking cottage and barns. Was doing well.
No. 5.
About fifty years old. Salvation Army officer. In the Colony six years.
Had son twenty-one, and together they worked a farm of sixty acres. He
owned twenty and rented forty. His life was despaired of by the doctors,
but he was enjoying good health at time of interview. Doing well
financially.
No. 6.
About forty-five. Original Colonist. Married. Had four children. Came
from Chicago, where he was a carpenter. Owned land in the Colony which
he rented out. Ran a hardware store in the Colony and was partner in the
Colony bank. Had property valued at $5,000.00. Had no capital when he
came to the Colony.
No. 7.
About forty-eight years old. Original Colonist. Married and had nine
children. Was railroad clerk in Chicago at $12.00 per week. Owned a
corner lot on the town site where he ran a grocery store. Had property
in Chicago worth $1,000.00 when he came to the Colony. Was worth
$8,000.00 at time of interview.
No. 8.
A farmer, from surrounding country, induced by Colony management to
invest in Colony land and tract as a "pace-setter" to the other
colonists. Thus secured forty acres at $70.00 per acre. Had introduced
the sheep industry. Bought up young lambs in Mexico, fattened them, and
sold at a profit. Had been two years on the Colony. Made $5,000.00 net,
per year. Had four thousand sheep.
No. 9.
Middle aged man. Married. Original colonist. Was expressman in Chicago,
but previous to coming to the Colony had to leave family and go to work
in the woods while the wife worked. Had taken out a government homestead
outside of the Colony. Gave up his holdings on the Colony and was
working as farm boss for a neighboring farmer while his wife ran a
boarding house.
No. 10.
Scotchman. About fifty years old. Married. Had five children. In the
Colony for six years. Arrived there with $25.00. Was carpenter in
Chicago. Was worth $1,000.00 when interviewed. Was arranging to sell his
holdings and go away, as he thought he could do better elsewhere.
No. 11.
About forty-five years old. Belonged to the Army. Married. One child.
Came from Baltimore, Md., where he worked as a teamster. The Army paid
family's fare to the Colony. Made a failure of his holding on the Colony
and was making a bare living by running the Colony hotel and doing
teaming. His failure was due to alkali and insect pests. His wife was
sick before coming, but became better and was evidently the more
efficient member of the partnership.
No. 12.
Thirty-five years old. Married. Two children. Brother of Army officer
and son of example No. 1. In the Colony eight years. Used to be
street-car conductor in Chicago. Gave up one holding in the Colony on
account of alkali and took another, where he was doing well at time of
interview.
No. 13.
About forty years old. Married. Came from the country. Rented a house on
the Colony and worked as a section-hand on the railroad.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] "The Poor and the Land." Introduction, p. VI.
[58] "Report of Departmental Committee," pp. 8, 9, 10.
[59] "William Booth," p. 83.
[60] "The S. A. in the U. S.," p. 15.
[61] See Giddings' "Principles of Sociology," p. 291.
[62] "The Poor and the Land," p. 75.
[63] See example No. 8 at the end of the chapter, p. 115.
[64] About this time, Mr. Curtis, describing the colony in the Chicago
Record, said "There is no neater group of houses in Colorado, and no
more contented community in the world. Nearly every one has written to
friends urging them to join the next colony that comes out, and thus I
judge they are enthusiastic over their success and the pleasures they
enjoy."
[65] See principle No. 2, p. 101.
[66] "The Poor and the Land," p. 78.
[67] See principle No. 5, p. 101.
[68] See several examples at the end of this chapter, p. 137.
[69] "The Poor and the Land," p. 82.
[70] See principle No. 1, p. 101.
[71] "The Poor and the Land," p. 39.
[72] See Pamphlet, "Review of Salvation Army Land Colony in California."
[73] The price of land at Ft. Amity would be different, and there, too,
the Army sometimes rents to the colonists an additional acreage.
[74] "Memorandum of Information Respecting the Salvation Army Colony at
Ft. Romie, California."
[75] For these principles see p. 101 of this chapter.
[76] See "The Poor and the Land," p. 40 and fl.
[77] See examples at end of chapter.
[78] See "The Poor and the Land," p. 47.
[79] See the "Poor and the Land," p. 82.
[80] See "Report of Departmental Committee," p. 14 and fl.
[81] _Ibid._
[82] Mr. John Manson in his book "The Salvation Army and the Public," p.
133 and following, states that in this work the Army has merely acted
the part of a business agency. We think that he has ground for this
statement, but we also think that the Army would be far more useful
along these lines than an ordinary business agency.
[83] See Report of Departmental Committee, p. 6.
[84] See Report of Departmental Committee, p. 3.
[85] See tables p. 98 of this book.
[86] See Report of Departmental Committee, p. 30.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SALVATION ARMY SLUM DEPARTMENT.
So much has been written on the question of the slums in the past few
years; so many settlements, evening recreation centers, summer
playgrounds, clubs, visiting nurses' associations, and kindergarten
associations have been organized; so much has been done by tenement
house commissions and tenement laws; so many churches have turned from
their original efforts to the slums; that we wonder why so little is
heard of what the Army, the organization supposed especially to
represent the poor, is doing in this direction. To tell the truth, if we
go down into the slums, either those of Deptford, Whitechapel, or of
Westminster, in London; or those of the Jewish, the Italian, the Negro,
or the Irish quarters in New York, or those of the Slav or Jewish
quarters in Chicago, expecting to find there the work of the Army much
in evidence, we shall be disappointed. What slum work is done by the
Army in these densely populated corners is done with love and earnest
hearts, with sacrifice and the best of intentions; but apparently it
does not bear fruit in the same proportion as does the work of the
settlement, whether church settlement or secular, or in the same
proportion as many of the kindergartens, summer playgrounds and evening
recreation centers. Nevertheless, the slum post of the Army is doing
valuable work and should be supported.
A sweeping tenement house reform can do more than any number of
settlements; a settlement can do more than the Army slum post; but
neither the tenement reform nor the settlement does the work that a slum
post does. Probably the work done by other organizations most nearly
allied to that of the Army slum post is that done by the various
organizations of church deaconesses, which have been growing rapidly in
late years, in which women are employed by the churches to visit the
poor in their homes, and nurse the sick, besides other duties. If we
depend or count largely on the Army slum work to reform the slums, we
shall be disappointed in learning that, after years of successful growth
in the Industrial and Social Departments, the Army has but twenty slum
posts in the United States[87], some of these being very small, and that
it has no large number in other countries. Such as it is, the work is
well worth while. But let us examine its origin, present status and the
reason for its relatively small growth.
In the beginning of the Army movement, Mrs. Booth, the late wife of
General Booth, supplemented her husband's work by a personal visitation
of the people in their homes. She proved the utility of this work and
also its place among the works of women. From her early efforts has
sprung the more widely organized department of slum work.
The slum work may be divided into three divisions: visitation work, the
slum nursery, and the maintenance of the slum post. Wearing a humbler
garb, even, than the regular Army uniform, the lassies start out on
their daily tours of visitation. They take care of the sick, and at the
same time, they clean the home and put everything in order. Often they
come upon cases of need and of want, and then they provide the little
necessaries: a sack of coal, a supply of food, or some needed clothing.
They take the children from the worn-out woman and amuse and instruct
them, while the mother does her work; and, wherever they go, although
most plainly dressed, they are clean and neat, and they strive to make
everything else clean and neat.
While this visitation work is going on, another most urgent need is
being supplied by the slum nursery. Here the mother can leave her
children in the morning, when she goes to her work, and find them safely
waiting for her in the evening, clean and happy. A charge of five cents
per day is made to cover the expense of feeding the children. During the
day they are well cared for, the younger ones properly nursed, and the
older ones taught simple little kindergarten games and songs. Sometimes
children are brought here and never called for again, in which case the
Army lassies in charge must find some permanent home for them, but this
does not often happen, as the mothers of the children are usually known
by the Army workers. At the slum nursery in Cincinnati there is also a
free clinic, where sick women and children go for treatment. Two of the
most efficient physicians of the city furnish free aid, and the
medicines necessary are provided.
In addition to the visitation work and the nursery, the maintenance of
the slum post means the keeping of slum quarters and a slum hall. The
"quarters" are the two or more rooms where the lassies live, and they
are located where most can be accomplished in the way of example and
influence. The hall is for the carrying on of slum meetings, for these
are regularly held. In these meetings the roughest crowd of men, women
and children is awed into respect and reverence by the simple slum
lassies with their songs and music. Again, in this little hall, the
children of the neighborhood are gathered in a Sunday School and taught
by the slum officers. It is a most interesting spectacle to watch these
children. Many different nationalities are represented, the dark races
and the light. As children, these nationalities mingle together more
freely than in adult life.
A special aspect of the slum post is the distribution of charitable
relief to the needy. It is specially situated, and has advantages for
this purpose; hence it becomes the distributing depot for bread, soup
and coal in winter, and ice in summer. For instance, from one slum post
in New York during the winter of 1907-8, 2,800 loaves of bread were
given out in one week, and for some months, an average of from 300 to
1,000 loaves, besides an average of two tons of coal per week. Some of
this, naturally, would go to the undeserving, but the slum officers, as
a rule, know the people of their immediate neighborhood, and can
exercise due discretion.
The failure of the Army slum work to increase in the same proportion as
its other branches of the social work, and its non-existence in many
quarters of our cities where it is most needed, is due to two causes.
One is the fact that the Army slum post, more than the Army industrial
home or the Army hotel, is a religious institution, and is continually
advertising and pressing on the public its peculiar doctrines. The slum
officers are imbued with the idea that personal salvation according to
the doctrines of the Army is the all-essential need. They would not be
engaged in this work themselves were it not for the hold these doctrines
have upon them. The slum post holds its regular meetings, exhorting its
hearers to get "saved," in its own original way. At Sunday School, the
children are taught that certain things are wrong and sinful, and these
very things are common-place in their own homes though, possibly some of
them of not much detriment. But, in a community almost entirely Catholic
or Jewish, such aggressive evangelism is not likely to increase the
influence of its advocates. Many settlements have learned with grief,
this very same lesson. Another reason for the lack of success is the
mental calibre of those engaged in the work. However, the devotion and
self-sacrifice of the Army slum sisters is one of the most touching and
sublime elements of the slums, and it is all the more touching when it
is to some extent misdirected and misplaced. To see the tact, patience
and perseverance of these "Slum Angels" as they are often called, is a
divine object lesson in itself, and much of their work is not done in
vain, as many would testify.
A useful experiment is under way at one former slum post, 94 Cherry
Street, New York City. In place of the old building formerly rented by
the Army here and used as a slum post, the Army has built a commodious
six-story building, which it calls a settlement. One floor is given to a
hall and parlor. Two floors are given over to rooms to be used as class,
club and kindergarten rooms. One floor is fitted up with a dining room
and kitchen, and another with a large dormitory and living room, to be
used as a Girls' Home. On the roof, preparations are under way for a
roof garden and play-ground, while washing facilities are provided in
the basement, where poor mothers can bring their clothes and wash them.
Already the New York Kindergarten Association has two kindergartners
busy here. Two sewing classes, averaging thirty-five members, are
organized. Mother's meetings are held, and a regular Army Corps is
organized, consisting of sixty members. This settlement may prove an
auspicious advance of the Army along these lines.
To sum up, the Army Slum Department is doing valuable work in the slums,
tending the sick, exercising and bringing out some of the better traits
of humanity, and offering relief in times of need; but it suffers from
an over-desire to spread its own peculiar doctrines of salvation, and
from the lack of grasping the whole situation which is characteristic of
its workers.
FOOTNOTES:
[87] This number has continued the same for five years.
CHAPTER V.
THE SALVATION ARMY RESCUE DEPARTMENT.
In the United States and Great Britain, the question of the social evil
has never been thoroughly investigated and faced systematically as a
whole. In some of the large cities in the United States, notably in
Chicago and New York, the question has been taken up in various ways by
different reform societies. Probably the best investigation made thus
far has been the work of the Committee of Fifteen, in New York City,
which issued its report in the year 1902, but the problem does not
appear to have been faced by us as a nation as it might have been. Other
countries, especially France, have paid a great deal of attention to
this form of vice. Nearly every phase of the question has been examined
by some French investigator and reported on, but when we look for
reports or investigations on the part of American or English students,
we find very little of value.
As regards the United States, all attempts at reaching a true estimate
of the extent of this evil have failed. Apparently, there is no way of
obtaining such information. We have seen estimates regarding some of the
cities in past years, and such estimates are given as 40,000 prostitutes
for New York City,[88] 30,000 for Chicago and 35,000 for San Francisco.
But these figures have evidently been derived in a very unscientific
way. The evil is probably worse in the Western states than in the
Eastern, but we are not satisfied of the accuracy of such estimates as
35,000 for San Francisco and only 30,000 for Chicago.
The work known as the Rescue Work of the Salvation Army is, to a certain
extent, related to the Slum Work. The slum officers can often work
hand-in-hand with the Rescue officers, inasmuch as their field is often
on the same or adjoining territory. At the same time, it is essential
that the Rescue officer be more highly specialized than the slum
worker. During the past few years the percentage of successful cases of
reform brought about by the Army Rescue Homes has reached as high as 80
or 85%, according to the Army's statistics. They, however, are unable to
keep in touch with all the girls sent out, and hence this percentage
would not be final, but even allowing 25% off for failures not known to
the Army, it is doubtful if there is any other reform agency along this
line which is as successful as is this force of trained rescue
workers.[89] In the United States this force works in conjunction with
twenty-two Rescue Homes scattered throughout the States. These homes are
especially fitted for the work, some having been built for the purpose.
There are work rooms for the girls, where they can do sewing and laundry
work. There is a reading room and sitting room, dining room, and
different dormitories and sleeping apartments. Then special facilities
are provided for the care of babies in the way of proper nurseries.
There are two ways in which these girls come under the influence of the
Homes and Rescue workers: either the girls come voluntarily to the
Homes, expressing their desire to leave this form of life for a better
one, or they are brought to the Home by the direct influence and touch
of the Rescue officer. These Rescue officers make regular tours through
the districts where the girls are to be found. They watch their
opportunities, and whenever they think it wise, they speak to the girls
personally. When this is not possible, they make an advance by way of
literature. One method is to open up a conversation by means of a little
card, upon which is printed the address of the Rescue Home, and the
offer of help to any girl who is in trouble of any sort. Some of the
officers tell us that they get to know the faces of the girls through
their regular tours, and whenever a new girl comes they are able to
recognize her at once, both by her features and her actions. In this
way there have been some instances of real prevention without the need
of any curative means whatever; instances where young girls have been
rescued from the very brink of their evil fate. One way of reaching the
girls is visitation and nursing when they are sick. Another way is
through the police courts. In some of the latter a woman Army officer is
in regular attendance, and the judge frequently hands certain cases over
to her charge.
Many of the girls received into the Home have had no practical training
in life; many, very little moral training, and in the case of those who
have had good training in earlier years, the life they have been leading
has so undermined their old ideals, that the training must be repeated.
Hence, the aim of the Home is two-fold. First, the aim is to lay a
strong foundation morally. When the girls reach the Home, in most cases
they are already penitent, and ready for a change, but to make such a
complete change as is necessary to lead them back to a normal life means
the individual revolution of desire and interest. Here is where the
importance of the moral influence of the Home is realized. Step by step
the girl is led on by the simple teaching of Christian and social
ideals, until in reality she is a changed individual. Often she looks
back on her past life with such repugnance and shrinking, that her only
desire becomes that of doing something to retrieve her past, and she
becomes an active agent in the betterment of the conditions of other
girls around her.
Meanwhile, the second aim of the Rescue Home is being realized. The
girls are taught the means of practical livelihood. They are instructed
in cooking, the care of the kitchen and nursery, and general
housekeeping. Sewing is made a prominent feature, and in every Home a
laundry is maintained, where the girls do their own washing and
sometimes outside washing. In some Homes the fund realized from the
laundry and from the sale of clothing made by the girls is quite a help
toward defraying the general expenses. Again, at some of the Homes,
such work as book binding and chicken raising has been successfully
carried on. Independence is encouraged, and as soon as possible the girl
is made to feel that, by aiding in the work of the Home, she can help
meet the expense which she caused.
To the girl who has possibly never done sewing, never known anything
about proper cooking or the care of a home, there is much that is new in
this training, and, on the other hand, great patience is required on the
part of her instructors. A fit of anger or despondency, and in a very
short time she has left the Home and its care, and returned to her old
life. Some do this even more than once and again return, having, upon
reflection, realized the force of its love and shelter. Others, of
course, leave and never return, but a large number are sent back to
their own homes or out to fill situations of various kinds.
A great difference is found between one girl and another, due to the
different status of life and surroundings from which they originally
fell; hence, some girls are reformed with greater ease and in a shorter
time than are others. The average time that a girl is retained in the
Home is about four months. The Army aims at keeping in touch with them
afterwards.
"Personally," says one of the leading Rescue officers writing on
this point, "I attach by far the greatest importance to the work
done with our girls after they leave the Home. If we ceased our care
for them when they went out to service, we should have, I fear, many
failures. I have by my elbow, as I write to you, a current record of
120 girls, not picked out but taken just as they come, which tells
just where each one is, what she is doing, what was her spiritual
condition when last seen or heard from, what day visited, etc. That
list is taken from a record kept of every girl who passes through
our hands. On one page is her previous life story; on the other, her
career after leaving the Home. It is the most important record we
keep."[90]
Along with other departments of social service in the Army, this
department has been considerably extended during the past few years.
Figures are at hand for the United States only. In 1896 there were five
Rescue Homes with a total accommodation for 100 girls, and there were,
in the Rescue Work, 24 officers. In 1904 we found twenty-two homes, with
a total accommodation for 500 girls, and there were 110 specialized
officers engaged in the Rescue Work. During the eight years prior to
1907 15,000 girls were helped.[91] Speaking of the year 1903-4,
Commander Booth-Tucker says: "More than 1,800 girls passed through the
homes during the year, and of these 93% were satisfactory cases, being
restored to lives of virtue, while some 500 babies were cared for."[92]
During the past few years, also, some valuable properties have been
acquired for the purposes of Rescue Homes. Among these are two Homes in
Philadelphia worth $20,000.00; the Home in Manhattan, New York City,
valued at $35,000.00; the Home in Buffalo, costing nearly $40,000.00;
the Home in Los Angeles, worth more than $15,000.00, and others.
In conclusion it may be said that although this great social question
presents almost overwhelming problems for solution, yet there is no
agency that deals with the evil in a curative way so successfully, and
on such a scale, as does the Rescue Department of the Army. One
difficulty of the work is that, while so many departments of the Army
work are self-supporting, this work cannot be made so. Another
difficulty is the lack of those who are willing to sacrifice their lives
to such noble effort. Mrs. Catherine Higgins, former Secretary for this
department, in her report, said that she had a great need of 100 more
workers, and that she could use many times that number in the
furtherance of the work.
While it is rather the part of society to strike at the very causes of
this social evil and root it out entirely, still, such successful
combating with the evil itself, right on the battle-field of flagrant
vice, should receive the hearty support of all.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] Mentioned in Josiah Strong's Social Progress, 1906, p. 243.
[89] In Great Britain in 1903, the proportion of re-admissions in the
Rescue Homes was about one in seven. In that year, about one-sixth of
the new cases were unsatisfactory. (The S. A. and the Public, p. 131.)
[90] "Social Service in the Salvation Army," p. 71.
[91] Pamphlet "S. A. in the U. S."
[92] _Ibid._, p. 26.
CHAPTER VI.
SOME MINOR FEATURES OF THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL WORK.
There are a number of features of the Salvation Army Social Work, which
for the sake of brevity we shall group together in one final chapter.
These are, (1): Christmas dinners, (2): prison work, (3): the employment
bureau, and (4): work among the children. Taking up the subject of
Christmas dinners, we find here what seems to be an advertising scheme
more than a systematic form of relief. Sentiment, doubtless, has its
place, even with the masses, and yet, in this great winter feast, there
is more sentiment than there is real practical good accomplished. To the
quiet, calculating student the question arises whether it would not be
far better to utilize the vast amount of energy and financial outlay,
which it gives to gorging the multitude for one day, in a better and
more lasting way; the question whether there is not, in these Christmas
feasts, a likeness to the old time feast of pagan Rome. In every city of
any size throughout the country the pots and kettles on the street
corner are familiar objects. At each Corps or other location of the
Army, tickets are given out entitling the bearer to a Christmas dinner,
or, in certain cases, to a basket with a dinner for a family. A good
deal of trickery is indulged in by the professional beggars, by means of
which it often happens that several dinners go to the same person. And
yet, as we have watched those 5,000 baskets containing food for 25,000
persons go out, to bring cheer and comfort to the hungry in their homes,
and as we have gazed on that vast banquet of 3,000 guests seated at one
sitting, we could not but feel glad that these poor brothers and sisters
of ours might realize the force of human sympathy for once in the year
at least.[93]
Another minor feature of the Salvation Army work is the prison work.
The majority of the jails, local, county and state, are visited at
intervals by certain members of the Army set aside for that purpose in
each community. In one State's prison there is a regularly organized
corps of Salvation Army soldiers, who are all prisoners, some of them
for a life term. In most prisons the Army provides literature, sees to
the correspondence of the prisoners and holds meetings with them. But it
is not so much the work with the prisoners in the jail that counts, as
it is the influence gained over them, which leads them to come to the
Army and make a new start in life when they get out. Many who find
themselves behind the prison bars are not to be classed as regular
criminals. A man is often classed as a criminal who is a victim of
misfortune only, and has no inherent criminal instincts. It is with the
criminal "by occasion," as Lombroso puts it,[94] that much successful
work can be done in the way of reform. The Army has a regular
organization known as the Prison Gate League. When a prisoner is
discharged he is met by one of this league and invited to go to work at
one of the Army's institutions. After being influenced and helped in
this institution for a certain length of time, if he seems to justify
it, he is sent out to work in some position. There are no definite
statistics recorded of those of this class who have been permanently
bettered.
Still another minor feature is the employment bureau system. While
mentioned here as merely one of a group of minor features, this system
is one of great importance to the industrial world. It is being taken
into consideration in many places by thoughtful men, and there is
promise of its assuming national, if not international proportions. The
general term, employment bureau, serves to bring to our recollection the
accompanying evils of the contract wage system and industrial slavery,
against which there has been agitation in the past, but it is because of
these accompaniments that the importance arises of securing a system
which shall be free from them. In Germany considerable work has been
done along these lines, municipalities and provinces have taken up the
work, and an all-round effort is being made to place labor in the right
position for work at the proper time.[95] New York City is to-day
swarming with many agencies, which are conducted by men and women, who
may rightly be classed as extortioners. In spite of the rigid rules on
the subject, the ignorance and poverty of their victims makes evasion of
the law comparatively easy. Jacob A. Riis, speaking of this subject,
says:
"It is estimated that New York spends in public and private charity
every year around eight millions. A small part of this sum
intelligently invested in a great labor bureau that would bring the
seeker of work and the man with work together, under auspices
offering some degree of mutual security, would certainly repay the
amount of the investment in the saving of much capital now much
worse than wasted, and would be prolific of the best results."[96]
In regard to the work of the Army in this field every large city
contains an employment bureau conducted by it and maintained for the
free use of the unemployed. Some of the men, who secure positions have
been in one of its own institutions, and the Army workers know whether
or not to recommend them for a certain position. Outside of giving men
work in its own institutions, the Army, during the year 1907, found
employment for 55,621 persons in the United States alone.
Contrary to expectation, the children's work of the Army has not
attained a magnitude in proportion to the other lines of work which have
been developed. This may be accounted for in part by the fact that there
are more institutions open for children to which the Army can turn for
help than there are institutions of other types. Thus, while the Army
can often get a child taken into some orphanage already existing, either
public or private, in the case of the drunkard, the unemployed or the
fallen woman, the Army finds it necessary to furnish its own
institutions. Again, the Army states that wherever possible, some friend
is found who is willing to adopt a child. Of course, this is far
preferable to placing the child in some institution, inasmuch as
adoption restores the home in a real sense.
The work among the children may be divided into temporary work and
permanent work. By temporary work we do not mean work that is
superficial, for it may be the most permanent and lasting in its
results, but we mean work that is undertaken which influences the
children for a limited amount of time only. The slum nursery or
kindergarten is of this type, but as we have already described it in
connection with the Slum Department, it needs only mention here. Another
line of temporary work is the Sunday School work of the Army, but that
comes under the religious work and not the social.
An important line of temporary work, however, is the summer outing for
the poor children. In each of our large cities these excursions for the
poor children have been carried out on a large scale. Arrangements are
made with a railroad or a steamboat company; the children are collected,
hundreds at a time, and cared for by parties of Salvationists, they are
taken out to the country for the day. Children who have never seen the
country, and who do not know what a tree, a green hill, or the running
water looks like, are thus given an entirely new outlook upon the world,
and a lasting impression is made on their minds. In Kansas City, this
line of work has been developed still further. One of the large parks
has been handed over to the Army by the city authorities, and in it has
been established a summer camp. Tents are pitched on the grass under the
trees, and poor families are brought out here for a week at a time. In
this way hundreds of families have experienced a little of summer
vacation who otherwise would never have left their slum dwellings.
The permanent handling of the children as opposed to the temporary,
begins with the Maternity Homes which are managed in connection with the
Rescue Homes, and continues on through the Orphanages. The children
cared for in this permanent way are the babies from the Maternity Homes
and orphans. From this it must not be supposed, with regard to the
Maternity Homes, that there is any intentional separation or even a
suggested separation of the child from the mother, but in many cases,
after a time, a partial separation is necessary. The mother is
influenced and taught to care for and love her offspring, but after
spending some months in the Home, she may take a situation of some sort,
often as a domestic servant, and here she cannot take her baby. Hence,
in such cases, the mother is expected to visit her child frequently, and
to provide for its support.
The other class of children dealt with in a permanent way are those who
are picked up from the street, or who otherwise fall into the hands of
the Army, often after being deserted by their parents. While Orphanages,
as already stated, are not an important item in the Army's work, there
are several in England and four in the United States. For the situation
of an Orphanage, a country location is sought. For instance, one near
New York City is located on a beautiful piece of property at Spring
Valley. Another is at Rutherford, N. J. One of the largest is situated
near San Francisco, California, and one of the latest additions for this
purpose has been the securing of a fine piece of property at Lytton
Springs, Cal. In all, there is accommodation for two hundred and
twenty-five children in the United States.
FOOTNOTES:
[93] The author refers here to the annual Christmas dinner given in New
York.
[94] "The Criminal," p. 208.
[95] "The German Workman," ch. XVII
[96] "How the Other Half Lives," p. 253.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCLUSION.
We have now covered the work of the Salvation Army social movement in
its different branches. We have described the work, the extent and the
management of each department. We have also considered the criticisms
and objections to which each department is open, and we have attempted
to estimate the value of each department to society. We have arrived at
the conclusion that the work of the Industrial Department, leaving out
the Industrial Colony, is a practical, deserving and successful effort
to put unfortunate men once more on their feet, at no expense to the
public, saving a slight embarrassment to those already engaged in the
salvage and second hand business; that the Army lodging house is the
best so far offered for the housing of the lower homeless class,
although not entirely satisfactory; that the Slum Work is good, but
limited in its scope, owing to the religious sentiment attached, and the
mental inferiority of its workers; that the Rescue Work is about the
best of its kind; and that good work is being done in other directions,
such as the prison work, the employment bureaux and the children's work.
On the other hand, we have found that the two Industrial Colonies and
three Farm Colonies are not successful enough to warrant any additional
expenditure on them or on any new colonies. This is due to the fact that
the class most needing help in the cities is not the class to succeed on
the land, and to the fact that men are more successful as pioneers on
the land, when they are scattered and left to rely on themselves, having
experienced farmers as neighbors, than when they are grouped closely
together in one colony. Also there is nothing in favor of heavy
expenditure for Christmas dinners, since the same amount of money can be
put to better advantage in other ways.
But, having reached these conclusions regarding the separate departments
of the Army social work, what about the movement as a whole? The
critics have advanced a good many objections against the Army. Some of
these objections relating to special departments and not to the Army as
a whole, we have already dealt with in our discussion of those separate
departments. There remain six principal objections:
1. That the organization is narrow and not willing to cooperate with
other organizations.
2. That the highly centralized military form of government is likely to
lead to disastrous consequences.
3. That the Army, in its financial dealings, does not take the public
sufficiently into its confidence.
4. That the Army collects funds, on the strength of its social work, and
applies these funds to religious propaganda.
5. That there is a lack of accuracy in its reports of work accomplished.
6. That the Army, as an organization, has become more of an end in
itself, than a means to an end.
Regarding the first objection, the narrowness and lack of cooperation,
we think there is a good deal of truth in it. The Army has made a great
success as an organization, and the work of its founder and his
assistants is one of the most remarkable achievements of the age. Things
apparently impossible have been accomplished, and obstacles apparently
unsurmountable have been overcome. The result is a self-confidence and
assurance, amounting in many cases to bigotry. The members of the
organization look upon it as especially favored by God, and as above any
other organization. Hence, we find many of the leaders far from humble
in their bearings, whatever their profession may be, and entirely
uninclined to cooperate with other organizations. This fact has been
brought to the foreground of late years in England and America by a
certain amount of antagonism between the Army and the Charity
Organization Society, the Army claiming that it can do its work along
its own lines and get along without any alliance with the Society, and
the latter claiming that much economy would result if the Army would
unite its efforts along social lines with the Charity Organization
Society. The controversy cannot be discussed here, but it seems a pity
that some sort of union cannot be entered into in which both
organizations would be represented in a manner satisfactory to both. One
great difficulty, evidently, is the religious element in the social work
of the Army, which tends to prejudice the Charity Organization Society
in some degree against the Army, and tends to keep the Army aloof from
any organization considered secular. However, we find many leading
officers in both organizations with friendly feeling, and there is hope
that the time will come, when the controversy will be at an end.
Coming to the second objection, that the highly centralized military
form of government of the Army is likely to lead to disastrous
consequences, we think that, if continued, this form of government must
indeed lead to disaster. It is evident that this might happen in
different ways. In an organization held together by one man or by one
idea, disintegration would tend to take place in the one case by the
failure or death of the leader, and in the other case by the expansion
of the idea. The Army is held together by both the man and the idea, and
we need not turn away from its own history to get examples of this
disintegration in both ways. Take the first bond of union, the man of
striking, hypnotic personality. Since the very inception of the
movement, time after time, men who have gained influence in the Army,
have separated from its ranks and started a movement of their own of
more or less formidable dimensions. The instance most applicable here is
that of the division which took place a few years ago in the United
States. At that time the Army in this country had been very successful
under the leadership of one of General Booth's sons, Ballington Booth
and his wife, Maud, the latter especially being a most attractive and
talented personality and gifted, persuasive speaker. Mr. and Mrs.
Ballington Booth were flattered by attention from all sides, and by the
worship of the soldiers and officers under them. Orders came from
General William Booth, commanding them to give up their leadership in
the United States and take control of some other country. But they had
no idea of giving up their position in this country, and, elated by
success, confidently announced their leadership of a new movement, the
Volunteers of America, which is still in existence. While the other
element, that of the expansion of the idea, showed itself at this time
in a revolt against the narrow, despotic methods of General William
Booth, the main element in this division was that of personality. Taking
up the second bond of union, that of the central, controlling idea and
purpose, we find the whole movement at the present time is tending to
disintegrate through the expansion of this idea. This is shown by the
continual departure of men from the ranks of the Army, who see that its
methods and machinery are too cramped for their efforts, and also by the
different attitude of the remaining members towards the movement itself
and its leader General William Booth.
It is possible, however, that there will gradually be effected a change
in the form of government of the army which will allow for enlargement
and differentiation within the movement itself. General Booth, the sole
head of the movement, cannot live much longer, and at his death, changes
already threatening will demand attention. He has maintained a
remarkable control over his world-wide following, in spite of numerous
outbreaks and dangerous splits, and has legally arranged with great
care, we are told, the succession to follow him. But that there will
ever be a second General Booth, or that there could be a series of
General Booths, able to hold the organization as he has, is incredible.
We have talked with leading officers of his Army on this subject and
find that they too, are looking for changes. The fact that the social
work is having such a remarkable growth, while the spiritual work is
apparently unable to hold its own, is in itself a feature demanding a
change. The Army of industrial and social officers and employees will
not be bound by the same ties to the General as his former Army of
spiritual officers and soldiers. The latter were possessed with an
emotional, fanatical enthusiasm which blinded them to everything save
the service of their much adored General. The former have a different
outlook on life. They are the new Army, a result of tendencies inherent
in the growth of the movement. They look at humanity and individuals
from other standpoints than that of the salvation of the soul. The
material side of society, with its institutions of business, and
practical forms of charitable relief, occupies a large amount of their
attention. This has already led to considerable differentiation of
government and control. Take, for example, the corporation, "The
Industrial Homes Company" controlling eighty-four industrial
institutions in the United States, and managed by a board of directors
in New York City. This example is opening the way toward a future
government by a board of some sort for other departments of the Army,
and in time for the spiritual department, and then the further step of
representation of members on these boards will not be far distant. At
any rate we see reason for hoping that, while other improvements are
taking place, the government of the Army will not be a handicap to the
movement.
By the third objection, that the Army in its financial dealings does not
take the public sufficiently into its confidence, is meant that complete
records of detailed expenditure are not issued. The public provides for
a large part of the income of the Army, and it has a right to know just
how and where that income is spent. The man and woman who is being
continually confronted by a lassie on the street with a little box for
the receipt of contributions, after contributing again and again, is
likely to ask the question, just where is this money going; and it would
be of advantage to the Army itself, if it would issue a more definite
statement of the use to which it puts public money. Some people are
satisfied with the general report that "the Army is doing good," but
there are many who would contribute more largely, if they knew directly
for what they were contributing. In reply to this criticism, the Army
states that it deposits regularly with the state authorities a
statement showing the disposition and state of the finances of its
corporations, such as "The Reliance Trading Company" and "The Salvation
Army Industrial Homes Company."
The Army also issues every year a balance sheet which shows its assets
and liabilities on a large scale. But this is not sufficient. The
ordinary person can receive no light from either the statement deposited
with the state authorities or the yearly balance sheet published by the
Army. In fact, although the Army uses the services of an expert
accountant in getting out this balance sheet, for all that the public
knows, it may be using the funds entrusted to it in any way it wishes.
This should be remedied by a regular statement, clearly revealing the
disposition of every cent donated.
A discussion of the preceding objection leads us to the fourth
objection, that the Army collects funds on the strength of its social
work, and applies these funds to the carrying on of its religious
propaganda.[97] The Army denies this, but admits that there is a good
deal of money collected for the general work, there being no specific
object implied when it is collected, other than a statement of the
various departments in which the Army is working, and of their extent.
Of course, the social work comes in for strong presentation on the
statement, but the money not being collected for any one object, the
Army is at liberty to apply it to any branch of its work whether
spiritual or social. This again shows the need of greater definiteness
and accuracy in the Army's report to the public.
A fifth objection is the lack of accuracy shown by the Army in its
reports of work accomplished.[98] This has special reference to the
statistics published by the Army, and is a good criticism. At different
times and in different parts of the world, statistics are given out,
which seems to emanate from no one authority, which are often
contradictory, and which create confusion in the mind of the person
wishing to get at the facts. As a result of a good deal of recent
criticism on this point, all future statistics of the Army in the United
States are to come from one point only, are to be in charge of an
expert, and no publication of statistics is to be allowed without the
consent of the National Headquarters.
The sixth and last objection is a very important one and one which has
been seen in the history of organizations without number, viz: that the
organization tends to become an end in itself, instead of a means to an
end. This objection is also allied to a former one regarding a lack of
cooperation on the part of the Army with other organizations. More and
more an organization, formed as is the Army, feels complete in itself,
and works continually for its own interests and its own glory. In a
large number of instances the objective point that was once humanity and
the glory of God tends to become the advancement of the Army. While
feeling that this objection is a serious one, it still cannot be
considered as anything but unavoidable, considering the government and
general character of the movement. If it were possible for the Army to
be governed locally, and to some extent, nationally by boards, a part of
whose membership represented the public, we believe that the tendency to
advance its own interest would be diminished. Study out the workings and
control of this organization, and it is found a machine, ever seeking to
increase its power and field of work. If this machine could be
controlled to some extent by the public which feeds it, it might be kept
as a useful servant, but otherwise, in spite of the great service which
it does society to-day, the tendency to get away from its object and to
become an object itself, will be more and more dangerous.
In conclusion, then, we find that these objections advanced by the
critics are not without foundation, and while some may be more
tendencies than actualities, it lies with the organization to guard
itself from them. We have found the Army an efficient worker along
several lines, and society owes it a considerable debt for past service
and lessons learned from it. Hence it would be a great pity for its
efficiency as a great public servant to be lessened by a lack of
publicity regarding its finance, or by a narrow, self-centered policy,
or by a too centralized form of government. Some of the Army leaders are
men of great hearts and strong minds, and it is to be hoped that,
whenever in the future, the opportunity offers to make a beneficial
change of policy in its duty toward the public or toward its sister
organizations engaged in charitable work or in its own internal
administration, that these leaders will stand firmly for what they
believe, and demand the necessary change.
FOOTNOTES:
[97] See the "S. A. and the Public," Ch. 5.
[98] See the "Social Relief Work of the S. A.," p. 4.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
American Journal of Sociology, Volume III.
Besant, Sir Walter,
The Farm and the City,
Contemporary Review, 72-792.
Booth, Bramwell,
I. A Day with the Salvation Army,
S. A. Press, London, 1904.
II. Illustrated Interviews,
S. A. Press, London, 1905.
Booth, Charles,
Life and Labor of the People,
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1899.
Booth, Commander Eva,
Where Shadows Lengthen,
S. A. Press, New York, 1906.
Booth, Florence E.
A Peep into My Letter Bag,
S. A. Press, London, 1905.
Booth, William,
I. In Darkest England, and the Way Out,
S. A. Press, London, 1890.
II. Social Service in the Salvation Army,
S. A. Press, London, 1903.
III. The Doctrines of the Salvation Army,
S. A. Press, London.
IV. The Why and Wherefore of the Rules and Regulations
of the Salvation Army,
S. A. Press, London.
V. Orders and Regulations for Field Officers,
S. A. Press, London.
Booth-Tucker, Commander,
I. William Booth, Life of
S. A. Press, New York, 1898.
II. The Salvation Army in the United States,
S. A. Press, New York, 1899.
III. Social Relief Work of the Salvation Army in the
United States,
S. A. Press, New York, 1900.
IV. Our Future Pauper Policy in America,
S. A. Press, New York, 1898.
V. Prairie Homes for City Poor,
S. A. Press, New York, 1899.
VI. A Review of the Salvation Army Land Colony in California,
S. A. Press, New York, 1903.
Coates, Thomas F. G.
The Prophet of the Poor,
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1906.
Dawson, William Harbutt,
The German Workman,
Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1906.
Devine, Edward T.,
The Principles of Relief,
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1905.
Hadleigh,
The Salvation Army Colony,
S. A. Press, London, 1904.
Haggard, H. Rider,
The Poor and the Land,
Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1905.
Higgins, Mrs. Catherine,
Love's Laborings in Sorrow's Soil,
S. A. Press, New York, 1904.
Huxley, T. H.,
Social Diseases and Worse Remedies,
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1891.
Manson, John,
The Salvation Army and the Public,
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1906.
Precipices: A Sketch of Salvation Army Social Work,
S. A. Press, London, 1904.
Report of Committee of Fifteen,
The Social Evil,
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1902.
Report of the Departmental Committee, Appointed to Consider
Mr. Rider Haggard's Report on Agricultural Settlements in
British Colonies.
Wyman & Sons, London, 1906.
Riis, Jacob A.,
I. How the Other Half Lives,
Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902.
II. The Children of the Poor,
Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902.
III. A Ten Years' War,
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., New York, 1900.
IV. The Peril and Preservation of the Home,
Geo. W. Jacobs' & Co., Philadelphia, 1903.
Ruskin, John,
Sesame and Lillies,
Donohue, Hernneberry and Co., Chicago.
Seager, Henry Rogers,
Introduction to Economics,
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S. A. Press, London, 1907.
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VITA.
The author of this dissertation, Edwin Gifford Lamb, was born in London,
England, December 22, 1878. He attended private schools in that city and
then spent three years in Northwestern Canada without schooling. After
this he went to California where he prepared for college in the
preparatory department of the University of the Pacific. He became a
citizen of the United States as soon as eligible and graduated from
Leland Stanford Junior University in 1904, with the degree of A. B. In
the year 1904-'05, he was a student at Union Theological Seminary and
Columbia University. During the year 1905-'06, he held a scholarship in
Sociology at Columbia University. At this institution he studied under
Professors F. H. Giddings, John B. Clark, H. R. Seager, H. L. Moore, J.
Dewey, F. J. E. Woodbridge and W. P. Montague. Since that time he has
been an instructor in the Harström School, Norwalk, Connecticut.
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and capitalization have been left as in the
original text. The same is true for inconsistent abbreviations for U. S.
states and inconsistent placement of footnote markers.
CHAP. III. (in the original text) has been changed to CHAPTER III. for
consistency.
Punctuation has been standardized. Spelling mistakes have been
corrected, except for the items listed below, which have not been
changed.
The book seems to use fl., rather than ff., as an abbreviation that
refers to the pages following a number.
This book refers twice to the title "Sesame and Lillies." In other
sources, that title is sometimes spelled as "Sesame and Lilies."
On the list of "Examples of Salvation Army Hotel Lodgers," under No. 3,
the city name Pittsburgh is misspelled as Pittsburg in the original
text.
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