DR. GREENWOOD'S "GENERAL BOOTH AND HIS CRITICS"
So far as I am concerned, there is little or nothing in this brochure beyond a reproduction of the vituperative stuff which has been going the round of those newspapers which favour "General" Booth for some weeks. Those who do not want to see the real worth of it all will not read
the preceding pages; and those who do will need no help from me.
I fear, however, that in justice to other people I must put one of Dr. Greenwood's paragraphs in the pillory. He says that I have "built up, on the flimsy foundation of stories told by three or four deserters from the Army" (p. 114), a sweeping indictment against General Booth. This is the sort of thing to which I am well accustomed at the hands of anonymous newspaper writers. But in view of the following easily verifiable statements, I do not think that an educated and, I have no doubt, highly respectable gentleman like Dr. Greenwood can, in cold blood, contemplate that assertion with satisfaction.
The persons here alluded to as "three or four deserters from the army"
are:—
(1) Mr. Redstone, for whose character Dr. Cunningham Geikie is
guarantee, and whom it has been left to Dr. Greenwood to attempt to
besmirch.
(2) Mr. Sumner, who is a gentleman quite as worthy of respect as
Dr. Greenwood, and whose published evidence not one of the champions
of the Salvation Army has yet ventured to impugn.
(3) Mr. Hodges, similarly libelled by that unhappy meddler Mr.
Trotter, who was compelled to the prompt confession of his error (see
p. 277).
(4) Notwithstanding this evidence of Mr. Trotter's claims to
attention, Dr. Greenwood quotes a
statement of his as evidence that a statement quoted by me from Mr. Sumner's work is a "forgery." But Dr. Greenwood unfortunately forgets to mention that on the 27th of December 1890 (Letter No. VII. above) Mr. Trotter was publicly required to produce proof of his assertion; and that he has not thought fit to produce that proof.
If I were disposed to use to Dr. Greenwood language of the sort he so freely employs to me, I think that he could not complain of a handsome scolding. For what is the real state of the case? Simply this—that having come to the conclusion, from the perusal of "In Darkest England," that "General" Booth's colossal scheme (as apart from the local action of Salvationists) was bad in principle and must produce certain evil consequences, and having warned the public to that effect, I quite unexpectedly found my hands full of evidence that the exact evils predicted had, in fact, already shown themselves on a great scale; and, carefully warning the public to criticize this evidence, I produced a small part of it. When Dr. Greenwood talks about my want of "regard to the opinion of the nine thousand odd who still remain among the faithful" (p. 114), he commits an imprudence. He would obviously be surprised to learn the extent of the support, encouragement, and information which I have received from active and sincere members of the Salvation Army
—but of which I can make no use, because of the terroristic discipline and systematic espionage which my correspondents tell me is enforced by its chief. Some of these days, when nobody can be damaged by their use, a curious light may be thrown upon the inner workings of the organization which we are bidden to regard as a happy family, by these documents.