In
1865 William Booth, a Methodist
preacher, founded the Christian Mission in London's East End to help
feed and house the poor. The mission was reorganized in 1878 along
military lines, with the preachers known as officers and Booth as
the general. After this the group became known as the Salvation Army.
Booth sought to bring into his worship services an informal atmosphere
that would encourage new converts. Joyous singing, instrumental music,
clapping of hands and an invitation to repent characterized
Salvation
Army meetings.
General Booth was deeply influenced by his wife Catherine
Booth, who believed that women were equal to men and it was only
inadequate education and social custom that made them men's intellectual
inferiors. She was an inspiring speaker and helped to promote the
idea of women preachers. The Salvation Army gave women equal responsibility
with men for preaching and welfare work and on one occasion William
Booth remarked that: "My best men are women!"
The Church of England
were at first extremely hostile to Booth's activities. Lord
Shaftesbury, a leading politician and evangelist,
described William Booth as the "Anti-Christ".
One of the main complaints against Booth was his "elevation of
women to man's status". Members of the Salvation
Army were imprisoned
for open-air preaching and their support for the
Temperance Society made them the target
for gangs of men who became known as the skeleton army.
By 1882 a
survey of London
discovered that on one weeknight, there were almost 17,000 worshipping
with the Salvation Army, compared to 11,000 in ordinary churches.
Even, Dr. William Thornton, the Archbishop of York,
had to accept that Booth and his followers were reaching people that
the Anglican Church
had failed to have any impact on.
The Salvation
Army worked hard to rescue young women from prostitution. In 1885
the army co-operated with William
Stead and his Maiden
Tribute campaign. They were also involved in attempting to bring an
end to the White
Slave Trade.
In 1890 William
Booth published his book In
Darkest England and the Way Out.
Booth argued that the unemployed should be helped to form their own
communities in Britain and overseas. Booth's followers attempted to
raise money for this scheme but although these communities were not
established, the campaign helped to establish the Salvation Army as
one of Britain's
leading charity organizations.
It was while
working with the poor in London
that Catherine
Booth found out about what was known as "sweated labour".
That is, women and children working long hours for low wages in very
poor conditions. Catherine and fellow members of the Salvation Army
attempted to shame employers into paying better wages. They also attempted
to improve the working conditions of these women.
The Salvation
Army were particularly concerned about women making matches. Not only
were these women only earning 1s. 4d. for a sixteen hour day, they
were also risking their health when they dipped their match-heads
in the yellow phosphorus supplied by manufacturers such as Bryant
& May. A large number of these women suffered from 'Phossy Jaw'
(necrosis of the bone) caused by the toxic fumes of the yellow phosphorus.
The whole side of the face turned green and then black, discharging
foul-smelling pus and finally death.
In 1891 the Salvation
Army opened its own match-factory in Old
Ford, East London. Only using harmless red phosphorus, the workers
were soon producing six million boxes a year. Whereas Bryant &
May paid their workers just over twopence a gross, the Salvation
Army paid their employees twice this amount. William
Booth organised conducted tours of MPs and journalists round this
'model' factory.
Booth's eldest son, William Bramwell Booth, succeeded his father as
general in 1912. His second son, Ballington Booth was the commander
of the army in Australia (1883-85) and the USA (1887-96). One of his
daughters, Evangeline Cora Booth, was elected general in 1934. The
Salvation Army is now established in 80 countries and has 16,000 evangelical
centres and operates more than 3,000 social welfare institutions,
hospitals, schools and agencies.
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Last updated: 7th May, 2002
(1)
William
Booth, In Darkest
England (1890)
The
citizens in Darkest England, for whom I appeal, are (1) those who,
having no capital or income of their own, would in a month be dead
with sheer starvation were they exclusively dependent upon the money
earned by their own work; and (2) those who by their utmost exertions
are unable to attain the regulation allowance of food which the law
prescribes as indispensable even for the worst criminals in our gaols.
According to Lord Brabazon "between two and three millions of
our population are always pauperised and degraded." Mr. Chamberlain
says there is a "population equal to that of the metropolis"
that is between four and five millions "which has remained constantly
in a state of abject destitution and misery". Darkest England,
then, has a vast despairing multitude in a condition nominally free,
but really enslaved - these it is whom we have to say.
(2)
William
Booth, In Darkest
England (1890)
The
town-bred child is at a thousand disadvantages compared with his cousin
in the county. But every year there are more town-bred children and
fewer cousins in the county. To rear healthy children you want first
a home; secondly, milk; thirdly, fresh air; and fourthly, exercise
under the green trees and blue sky. All these things every country
labourer's child possesses, or used to possess. In towns tea and slops
and beer take the place of milk, and the bone and sinew of the next
generation are sapped from the cradle.
(3) William
Booth, In Darkest
England (1890)
The home is largely destroyed where
the mother follows the father into the factory, and where the hours
of labour are so long that they have no time to see their children.
The omnibus drivers of London, for instance, what time have they for
discharging the daily duties of parentage to their little ones? How
can a man who is on his omnibus from fourteen to sixteen hours a day
have time to be a father to his children in any sense of the word?
He has hardly a chance to see them except when they are asleep. Many
of the new industries which have been started or developed since I
was a boy ignore man's need to one day's rest in seven. the railway,
the post-office, the tramway all compel some of the employees to be
content with less than the divinely appointed minimum of leisure.
(4)
William
Booth, In Darkest
England (1890)
Whatever may be thought of the possibility
of doing anything with the adults, it is universally admitted that
there is hope for the children. "I regard the existing generation
as lost," said a leading Liberal statesman. "Nothing can
be done with men and women who have grown up under the present demoralising
conditions. My only hope is that the children may have a better chance.
Education will do much." But unfortunately the demoralising circumstances
of the children are not being improved - are, indeed, rather, in many
respects, being made worse.
It will be said, the child today has the inestimable advantage of
education. No; he has not. Educated the children are not. They are
pressed through "standards", which exact a certain acquaintance
with A B C and pothooks and figures, but educated they are not in
the sense of the development of their latent capacities so as to make
them capable for the discharge of their duties in life.
(5)
George
Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
I have heard some remarkable women orators. Some
of them stand head and shoulders above all others. There was Catherine
Booth, mother of the Salvation Army, who was one of the simplest exponents
of the gospel of love I have ever heard. I think her speeches, sermons
and appeals on behalf of the weak and the fallen were among the finest
pieces of simple arresting oratory I have ever heard.
Her theology was rather hard and narrow, and very dogmatic. Later
on she threw her energy into work on behalf of young girls and illegitimate
babies. Her whole soul and spirit was poured out in an unceasing effort
to make men realize their responsibility. In politics, she demanded
legislation to raise the age of consent and provision for the maintenance
of these unfortunate victims of our lack of individual and social
responsibility.
(6)
Philip Gibbs, a journalist for the Daily
Mail met General Booth in 1902.
His spirit was like a white flame. He had a burning fire within him.
There was nothing of the gentle saint about him, and sometimes he
had a terrifying anger, as once I saw, which scorched and blasted
those who had betrayed him or had done some dirty work.
On the day I went to see him, on behalf of the Daily Mail,
he started by being angry, and then softened. Presently he seized
me by the wrist and dragged me down to my knees besides him. "Let
us pray for Alfred Harmsworth," he said. He prayed long and earnestly
for Harmsworth, and Fleet Street, and the newspaper Press that it
might be inspired by the love of truth and charity and the Spirit
of the Lord.
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