Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-13
GENERAL BOOTHS GREAT PRoJECT.

prosperous labor in various parts of the
world. General Booths plan has much in
it that is we'll founded and reasonable, and
is attracting wide attention. As Archdeacon
Farrar, the Prince of Wales, Cardinal
Manning and the Protestant bishops
generally, are indorsing the project and
urging the raising Of fund to put 1t in
practical operation, the matter is OF wide
interest, both as an interesting experiment
and for the suggestions which it contains
for effort to improve the condition OF the
poor all over the world.
General Booth is not satisfied with any pro-
ject which merely affords temporary relief
to the hungry and destitute and leaves
them subject to the conditions which created
their poverty. For the purpose of changing
the conditions of poverty, or, at least,
removing the destitute from their influence,
he elaborates, in Darkest England, or the
Way Out" scheme in which eleemosy-
nary charity is combined with the principle
of cooperation. In other words, the destl-
tute are to be helped to learn to help them
selves. For this purpose the organization to
would raise is divided into three lnstitu-
tions. the city colony, the farm colony and
the oversee colony, the first being prepar-
atory school for the second, and the second
training ground for the third.
In the city colony the destitute would be
permitted to pay in work for their food and
lodging. Labor registers would be pro-
vided for finding employment directly for
those suited to help themselves. Those who
need training, however, to fit them to be-
come selEsustaining would be passed on to
the farm colony, where they would be taught
fruit and dairy farming, poultry raising, to
build their own farm buildings and cottages
down to the making of bricks. One
of the original features of these
two branches would be the conversion
of city waste into valuable products.
The labor of the city colony is to be, largely,
the gathering of old clothes, bottles. broken
victuals and other refuse, and at the farm
colony the old food will be fed to animals,
the grease will be made into soup, waste
paper will be assorted and sent to paper
mills, waste tin made into toys and so on.
The labor in these first two branches is to
be paid only in food, lodging and clothing,
but when the inmates are thoroughly pre-
pared to sustain themselves they will be
sent to one of the oversee colonies. These
will be districts selected in various parts of
the world where land is to be had for the
asking and where pioneers will have pre-
pared the sites. When the colonist arrives
at one of these he will be given a house and
farm free of expenses, except for the obliga-
ton to pay for his passage and outfit. Thus
the destitute person who enters the city food
and shelter depot as an outcast will be
located at the oversee colony as an inde-
pendent and valuable member of society.
It will be seen that General Booths plan
is founded on the idea of transferring labor
from the places where it is over-crowded and
insuficiently employed to where it is
needed. 1t also contains a recognition of
the fact that there is practically unlimited
field for labor and production in the un-
settled parts of the world. The principle is
the true one, and for the relief of the people
who are now crowded into cities the scheme
is noble one. But its shortcoming, viewed
as permanent remedy for the evils of city
pauperism, is that it tails to attempt any
change in the original influences which
overcrowd the great cities. This is no OBJ
lection to General Booths project, but it is
a necessary perception of the wider and
deeper duty for society of changing the
conditions, which if left undisturbe6 will
fill the slums OF the cities with fresh recruits
to the ranks of poverty as fast as General
Booths plan can make room for them.
The causes which crowd destitute hu-
mauity into the great cities are infinitely
a leading one that is typical of the fact that
the blindness of legislation or the abnormal
conditions of social organization are the
effective causes OF these extreme manifesto
tons of poverty. One of the critics of
General Booths plan points out that
rural England is one OF the most thinly
populated districts in all Europe and asks
why the colonists should be taken overseas.
This only serves TO call attention to the
tact that one reason why city slums are
crowded in England is that the system OF
vast landed estates prevents the land from
being fully utilized for the sustenance of
the population and reserves it for the con-
troll of privileged few. In this country,
as long as our transportation system by con-
centratlng competition in transportation at
few distributing points, forces the crowd
ing of industry and commerce in the cities,
so long will the dregs of the laboring popu-
lation crowded together at these points
produce the phenomena OF the most ultra
forms of poverty.
When legislation actively directs itself to-
ward removing the conditions that crow d
the poor together in great cities, and to pre-
venting the abuses by which great fortunes
can be created at the cost of the masses, the
influences which create centers of destitu-
tion will be taken away. Then such organ
ized work as that proposed by General Booth
might be expected. not to abolish poverty
altogether, but to work so vast an improve
ment and alleviation as to be almost mil
lennial.
AFRICAN ADVERTISING.
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