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.

CHAPTER IV.

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.

CHAPTER V.

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.

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.

CHAPTER VI.

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:

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.