The Social Work of the Salvation Army

by Edwin Gifford Lamb

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.