The Social Work of the Salvation Army Part 2

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 sanct.i.ty 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, grat.i.tude, 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 grat.i.tude toward that organization! While this is not a true expression of their att.i.tude 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 a.s.set. 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 a.s.sists 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 ma.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses; it is from them that the pauper and criminal cla.s.ses 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 a.s.sets. The dependents become independent. Working by means of the laws of environment and a.s.sociation, the Army elevates the degenerate from a pseudo-social and anti-social cla.s.s to a higher level and to social position. Where individuality was lost, independence of character rea.s.serts 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 inst.i.tutions, that they pauperize men in place of helping them. The inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tutions. 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 cla.s.s 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 munic.i.p.al 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 inst.i.tution 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 cla.s.s. 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 compet.i.tion 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 compet.i.tion, 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 compet.i.tion 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 cla.s.ses 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 a.s.sistance 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 a.s.sistance 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 s.h.i.+ftless 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 s.h.i.+ftless 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.