Beneath, behind, and pervading all the successes of the Salvation Army is a force against which the world may sneer, but without which the world's miseries cannot be removed, the force of that Divine love which breathed on Calvary, and which God is able to communicate by His spirit to human hearts to-day.
It is pitiful to see intelligent men attempting to account, without the admission of this great fact, for the self-sacrifice and success of Salvation Officers and Soldiers. If those who wish to understand the Army would only take the trouble to spend as much as twenty-four hours with its people, how different in almost every instance would be the conclusions arrived at. Half-an-hour spent in the rooms inhabited by many of our officers would be sufficient to convince, even a well-to-do working man, that life could not be lived happily in such circumstances without some superhuman power, which alike sustains and gladdens the soul, altogether independently of earthly surroundings.
The Scheme that has been propounded in this volume would, we are quite satisfied, have no chance of success were it not for the fact that we have such a vast supply of men and women who, through the love of Christ ruling in their hearts, are prepared to look upon a life of self-sacrificing effort for the benefit of the vilest and roughest as the highest of privileges. With such a force at command, we dare to say that the accomplishment of this stupendous undertaking is a foregone conclusion, if the material assistance which the Army does not possess is forthcoming.
THE SALVATION ARMY SOCIAL REFORM WING.
Temporary Headquarters 36, UPPER THAMES STREET, LONDON, E.C.
OBJECTS.—The bringing together of employers and workers for their mutual advantage. Making known the wants of each to each by providing a ready method of communication.
PLAN OF OPERATION.—The Opening of a Central Registry Office, which for the present will be located at the above address, and where registers will be kept free of charge wherein the wants of both employers and workers will be recorded, the registers being open for consultation by all interested.
Public Waiting Rooms (for male and female), to which the unemployed may come for the purpose of scanning the newspapers, the insertion of advertisements for employment in all newspapers at lowest rates. Writing tables, &c., provided for their use to enable them to write applications for situations on work. The receiving of letters (replies to applications for employment) for unemployed workers.
The Waiting Rooms will also act as Houses-of-Call, where employers can meet and enter into engagements with Workers of all kinds, by appointment or otherwise, thus doing away with the snare that awaits many of the unemployed, who have no place to wait other than the Public House, which at present is almost the only "house-of-call" for Out-of-Work men.
By making known to the public generally the wants of the unemployed by means of advertisements, by circulars, and direct application to employers, the issue of labour statistics with information as to the number of unemployed who are anxious for work, the various trades and occupations they represent, &c., &c.