The Social Work of the Salvation Army

by Edwin Gifford Lamb

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.

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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 2½ 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.