San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-22
In DARKEST ENGLAND.
A PLAN FOR REMEDYINe THE SOCIAL
EVILS OF LONDON.

Book-An Extraordinary rIeti,od of Re-
<Ormins Britain's Paupers.
Gen. Booth lays down the ideal at which
society should aim. This is explained as
the ideal Of the London cab horse. The
cab horse has its charter with two points;
work is found for it with food and lodging
sufficient to enable it to get through its
daily task-that is the first; the second is
that when it falls down, whether it be by
its own fault or by mischance or by the fault
of others, it is helped up again, all ques-
tions as to who was responsible for its fall
being deferred until it is set upon its feet
again.
Having stated his ideal, Gen. Booth pro-
ceeds to the second and more important
part entitled "Deliverance" which occu-
pies more than two-thirds of his book His
scheme is three-fold, consisting of % the
city colony, (2l the farm colony, and (3) the
colony over the sea. His first step is to
take that hungry, voorhees, wight and give
him some food for his belly and shelter
for the night This he proposes to do by
the extension of his food and shelter de-
pots.
The result of their operations goes to prove
that you can give man filling supper
and substantial breakfast and a bed in
well warmed room at a cost of little more
than fourpence but if he has no fourpence
he must not go out therefrom until he has
done fourpennyworth of work to pay for
his bed and board.
GEN. BOOTHS PLAN.
This work Gen. Booth proposes to find
for him in the first instance by the estab-
Iishment of labor yards or factories in con-
nection with the shelters, where the penni-
less unemployed will be engaged on such
rough and simple industry as chopping
wood for fire wood, making mats sewing
sacks, etc. Their work will be duly meas
ured, and when they have done their four
pennyworth they will be free to go and
seek work elsewhere. This scheme has
been practically tested on a small scale in
connection with the Whitechapel shelter.
There exists small labor yard in which
seventy to ninety men have been working
for their rations for some time past The
labor buresu has been in full swing for
many months aud has found situations for
many unemployed Steps have also been
taken TO pave The way for the organization
of the sandwich men, and the result so
far has been fairly satisfactory.
The next development of the generals
scheme is novel. He proposes to organize
out of the unemployed what he calls the
Household Salvage corps, or the Waste
Not, Want Not brigade, the members of
which, in uniform, numbered and under
strict discipline, would undertake the col
lection from house to house of broken vict-
uals, old clothes, old newspapers and such
like exuvia of the household.
Take old umbrellas The itinerant UNI
brella mender is almost the only agency by
which old umbrellas can be rescued from
the dust heap. Side by side with our boot
factory we shall have a great umbrella
works. The ironwork of one umbrella will
be fitted to the stick of another, and even
from those that are too hopelessly gone for
any further use as umbrellas we shall find
plenty of use for their steels and whalebone.
THE CITY COLONY.
Bottles are fertile source of minor
domestic worry. When you buy a bottle
you have to pay penny for it, but when
you have emptied it you cannot get
penny back; no, nor even farthing. You
throw your empty bottle either into the
dust heap or let it lie about. But if we
could collect all the waste bottles of Lon
don every day il would go hardly with us
if we could not turn a very pretty penny
by washing them, sorting them and send
ing them out on a new lease of life. The
washing of old bottles alone will keep a
considerable number of people going
The refuge. the shelter, the labor fac
tory, the household salvage brigade and
the labor bureau constitute what Gen.
Booth calls the city colony. Even when
they are all set a-going, however useful
they may be, they are only palliatives. 1t
is necessary to provide way out, and that
way out is only possible in one direction
namely, by planting the people upon the
land. Waste labor to waste land is Gen.
Booths watcLword.
In the case of London he wulld take an
estate of some thousand acres in Kent or
Essex, if possible in close contiguity to the
estuary Of the Thames, and within easy ac-
cess by rail to the heart of the city. Here
he would establish his second stage of
remedial operations, which he calls the
farm colony. He would treat the estate
as training ground for emigrants as well
as a great market garden for the supply of
the rations with which he undertakes to
provide the out of works of the city.
After a period of probation in the Saliva
ton factory or labor yard a limited num-
Der of picked workers would be sent down
to the estate to settle on it as men settle on
a newly allotted farm in the far west. They
would be under complete direction. but
they would be expected to do almost every
thing for themselves. They would have to
put up their own shanties, and afterward
make their own bricks TO make their own
houses They would be supplied with
spades and seeds and roots with which to
urou thnir own yarata blpS No Dublic