Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-01-29
DARKEST ENGLAND. I"
GENERAL BOOTHS PLAN FOR THE
RELIEF or ENGLAND'S POOR.


The Salvation Army Leaders PreJ .,
Meeting With Favor--The submerged
Tenth"--A Radical and Far Reaching
Scheme ~ 100000 Needed 20 kndow
the Enterprise.
The chief of the Salvation Army.
General" B 10Th, has suggested. in a
book that is exciting deep interest. a
plan for the relief Of what he calls the
Submerged tenth Of Great Britain.
Mr.. Stanley's description. in Darkest
Africa. of the Congo Forest and its
! people seemed to General Booth so typi-
cal of the condition of East London. that
he has called his book Darkest E <
land, and the Way Out
Is is possible here only 10 assert thai
the lives of the people of East London,
that portion of the great city given over
to the lowest and most hopeless classes.
reach point of misery and degradation
almost beyond the belief of the more
| fortunate.
These classes throughout the United
Kingdom, inclusive of London. number,
| according to General Booth, 5000, 00U
souls, nearly as many as all the people
shows the difficulty of dealing with il.
In this work 1t is asserted. and by many
admitted, that tile Salvation Army has
been most successful Through an ex-
tension of its methods, General Booth
would show tile submerged" the sway
out Of their wretchedness.
His scheme is radical, and of great
| proportions He proposes to attack the
| problem by means Of three so called
colonies, the City, the Farm, and the
| Over Sea.
The plan of the City Colonies is de
| rived in part from that of the Salvation
Army Food and Shelter Depots. success.
full establishments. where all corners
are received at fourpence night in
| payment for supper, breakfast. and a
sleeping place. Under the new arrange
ment, a Labor Yard will give the OPP n
tunity to pay ones way by work. Be-
sides this, a Household Salvage Brigade
is proposed for the purpose of collecting
/ the vast waste of food, tins, and otheT
scraps that would be utilized by vii
layers, but must be thrown away in
| cities.
In these and other minor occupations
the inmates, for whom those in charge
have not found regular employment OF
returned to friends, may show their ca
| pacity for steady work. When it is
sufficiently proved. they are ready to
send to the Farm Colony.
The purchase Of an estate of 500 to
1000 acres near London, and close to a
railway, is to provide for this second
branch of the undertaking. Waste land
and waste labor will thus come together.
The farm itself is expected to train all
capable men in agriculture of variou,
sorts. The care of small fruits will give
special opportunities to women.
An Industrial Village, the nucleus of
the Farm Colony, will contain factories
to convert the Salvage Brigade's scraps
| into useful articles, the bones into but
tons, the tins into toys, and so on
through the list The waste food, such
as is not fit for human use, will go to
the pigs and other animals on the farm.
From service in this second grade of
the enterprise. more persons will be re-
stored to friends, and the usual en-
| ployments of men and women. Others
still will show their fitness for promo
tion to the third and last settlement,
the Over Sea Colony.
In Englands foreign possessions Gen.
eral Booth believes suitable tracts for
this colony may easily be found. With
some knowledge Of farm life, on land
prepared by pioneers for settlement,
granted to the coIonists as their ildi-
vidual property under the sole obliga-
ton to repay the expense OF their
| journey and outfit, ruled by good laws,
the men and women rescued from
Darkest England will have a fair
chance to live their new lives.
For the endowment Of the enterprise
General Booth asks 81 900. 900, less than
the cost Of asingle first class ship of war;
The evident advantages Of the plan are
that it begins in the core of the evil it
would conquer; from the first it cult.
Yates self dependence instead of pauper-
ism; throughout it is progressive, lead
ing men ON from strength to strength.
OF course objections are raised to the
| plan: that tlle cause of wretchedness
and misery Is largely in the people them
selves; that other agencies to accomplish
the same end are in operation; that the
successful execution of the plan requires
more ability of leadership than can BE-
| found
Yet when all is said, the plan surely
deserves serious consideration. Such a
nation as England might afford enor-
a "a