Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1897-02-20
MD. FEBRUARY 20, 1897.


wise miners to go to farming or anything else
unless that paper knows of opportunities to
which they can go and earn living. Will
pledge myself to give to the JOURNAL in the
next two months the names OF 10000 miners
who are looking for just such chance. If
the JOURNAL knows of no opportunities it is
dishonest in giving such advice; if it does
know of opportunities and will not aid the
miners to embrace them such inacton is
criminal The JOURNAL can take its CHOICE
Jncie Saa.
The JOURNAL takes no more stock
in one of Uncle SUMS 'pledges' than in
an irredeemable dollar.
But his question seems to be an
swered by a Chicago correspondent of
the st. Louis Republic, in brief asfol-
lows:
Chicago is to be made the center of vast
system Of social settlements similar TO that in
operation in England, made famous by
General William Booth OF the Salvation
Army Its boundaries are to be the limits of
the United States and its object the solution
of the labor problem.
temporary work will be offered, is to be es-
tablished. Spacious tenement houses will be
erected, and the Army will later extend the
movement to form colonies within radius
of several hundred miles Of the city Even
tually the movement will include the whole
country and will be operated from Chicago.
This is made possible by the remarkable sim
plicity Of the Salvation Army organization.
The idea thus given is elaborated to
considerable extent. but it is believed
the following prospectus by Col
Brewer is the most concise
At first the tracts of land will be small, of
course but, after they are well started, farms
OF from 500 to 1000 acres will be colonized IN
the middle west, and then, as stated before
the movement will be made national
The scheme looks weli--far better
than the Uncle Sum notion of pro-
fessional labor lifting itself into COM
petence by its bootstraps.
1t looks better because there is much
christianity in its socialistic features.
We may deride the Salvation Army
as we please, but no man can charge
it with deadly antagonism to the human
instinct to acquire wealth-he instinct
that makes business. Nobody hears
from its officers and soldiers the whis-
per which impeaches Providence for
equipping some men with more
talent or better opportunities than
others. In fact, they inveigh with as
much force against the hypocrisies
and failings OF organized christianity
as against the iniquities of the recog
nized and confessed unregenerate
They do so without a hint of anarchy
or a threat of chaos.
What is better they expect in the
projected movement to 'solve del.
icate and difficult problem
that of classifying the honest poor and
the mere Migrants. If man refuses work,
he Will be turned over to the police as
vagrant. lnjudicious pauper-making char
ity will be avoided. |
This is so radically different and so
manlfestly superior to the four-hour
day scheme OF labor for four irredeem-
able dollars that the two plans ought
not to be named in the same connec-
ton. In the one every man will be
classified according to his merit in
the other the premiums, if any, will be
shared most generously by those whose
four hours will be devoted to the work
of getting what they have not earned.
Between the Salvation Army scheme
and the tncle Sam remedies the former
is the one for the 10000 miners to
tumble into.