St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-22
LONDON SLUM WORK.
How Gen. Booth Makes Unem-
pIOycd Earn Their Bread.

LONDON SLUM WORK.
How Gen. Booth Makes Unem-
pIOycd Earn Their Bread.
Rev. David Morgan lectured at the
Peoples church last evening on the
London Sums" He said, in SUBJ
stance:
Booths social scheme is a child of
providence. 1t was born out of the
necessities of the Salvation Army
work. When Gen. Booth and his fol-
lowers discovered there were at least
5O,OO0 homeless men and women in Lon
don alone, thousands of whom had
no other place to lay their heads than
back alleys, doorsteps or the. grass of
the parks, 1t was plainly their duty
as Christians to provide some place
for them to sleep; and when they dis
covered that 100000 lived on one meal
day and many thousands more had
not more then three to four meals a
week, it was evident they ought to
take some steps to help these people,
especially in land of plenty like
England.
1t is disgrace to the church, as
wealthy as the churches of England
are, to have such a state of things as
exist there right on their own door
steps. They boast of the millions sent
to carry the gospel to heather lands,
while right in their own parish there
is more suffering and crying for bread
than In any heather land yet discov-
cred. All honor to Gen. Booth and
his army for doing what they can to
relieve this suffering.
Gen. Booth soon discovered that
most of these people could earn suf-
ficient each day to care for them
selves if food could be furnished at
about wholesale prices, and a cheap
place to sleep. So his first plan is to
furnish food depots, where simple food
could be obtained sufficient for meal
for or . cents or a bowl of soup and
bread for cents. To do this the food
is bought by the car load, and as high
as $4,000 lunches were served in a day
at. one depot In connection with each
depot he furnishes chairs for cents
night or mattresses for 4 cents. So a
person can live and sleep in a bunk
for 20 cents a day, or even as low as
10 cents. In this way he is able to
care for over 5000 men and women
each night and furnish meals to 10000
or $1,000 others. All this work is put
upon self-supporting basis, and he is
teaching us that one of the great
remedies is to bring the consumer
and the producer nearer, and do away
with the host of middle-men who live
upon both the consumer and producer.
His next step was to provide shelter
and work for the great army of home
less and unemployed. There are about
$4,000 of them in London at all times,
and they are largely increased in
times of depression. He has opened
what they call elevators, in which he
furnishes work to men and women who
are willing to work for their meals
and lodging until such time as they
can get employment elsewhere and
can secure work. Now Gen Booths
plan is not to make these elevators
desirable places to stay, but in return
for good plain food and bed, the
person is compelled to work hard all
day. If he did not adopt this plan his
elevators would be crowded with shift
less class, who would never make any
effort to leave and would become
burden of expense to the Salvation
Army, like most of our friendly inns
in this country, which fail to pay their
quired to work sufficient to meet the
expense. And here let me say that the
Friendly Inn of st. Paul, run by the
Bethel, has never more then paid its
own way, and if the expense of super
vision given it by the superintendent
was charged against it, it would run
behind; but the fact that it has no
rent to pay and only the expense of
IL 80 Nd
furnish a home to all who need it.
Gen. Booth in his elevators puts all
persons on piece-work and pays them
in brass checks, which are received for
food and lodging. Thus he compels all
persons to earn sufficient checks to get
bed and food. The lazy man he
starves out, as you must either do
certain quantity of work or go hungry.
The first work given to each ap-
plicant at the elevator is paper pick
ing, but after a few weeks of such
work. and the person manifests a de-
sire to get up out of the class of
tramps. he is set to work at some
other employment, to which he is
adapted, and is enabled to earn more
checks, which can be used to buy
clothes or tools, and thus once again
he is put on his feet, and work Sc
cured for him in some part of the
country.
Gen.. Booth claims that there is
plenty of work for every man, woman
and child in the world; that we are in
duty bound to furnish the work or so
direct the unemployed SO they can Sc
cure such work. That it is a crime
against society as well as against the
Individual to give any person who is
able to work food or shelter without
requiring sufficient labor in return to
pay for the same. That the millions
spent in London alone to care for the
poor is nearly all wasted and only
helps to increase the number Of pau
pers, while his method would reduce
the number 80 per cent and the other
10 per cent should be sent to the poor
house. That all outdoor relief should
stop and all persons able be set to work
to care for themselves or imprisoned
for lazineSS
+ Another important fact about Gen.
Booths work that should demand our
attention is his determination that his
elevators shall never become a hiding
place for wrong doing. That neither
man nor woman who comes to him can
expect any help in hiding their sin or
shame The guilty must suffer, and
the parties to the guilt must be
brought to justice. That sin is ter
rible thing and must not be encouraged
by making it easy or helping to
relieve the sinner of the shame and
guilt and punishment of his wrong do
ing Thus Gen. Booth is teaching US
the Divine method of dealing with this
social problem that we must solve.