Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-21
Gen. Booths Projects.

Cen Booth of the Salvation --rmy has ar
ranged to send 5000 families from the
slums of London and other English cities
to the Australian colonies, and has char
tered three large sh ips to transport them
early next spring. The colonial govern
ments have selected lands for the emf
grants, and have arranged to look after
them until they are in a position to take
care of themselves. Gen. Booth proposes
to send a similar number of families to
Canada under similar arrangements, and
the dominion authorities will locate them
on farms in the western provinces More
than 5000 immigrants were sent to Can
ada by the Salvation Army during the past
year, and their success and contentment in
their new homes have inspired confidence
in that method Of relieving the congestion
of population, not only in London. but in
other parts Of the united kingdom. Gen.
Booth has been advocating assisted emf
grafton for many years. and has been try
ing to induce the British government and
the colonial governments to adopt a gen.
eral scheme of land colonization. He finally
persuaded the authorities at London to send
Mr. H. Rider Haggard, the novelist, over
to the United States and Canada to make
an investigation. Mr.. Haggards report has
been so favorable that it has removed the
strongest objections.
The lack of funds has been The greatest
obstacle Gen. Booth, with characteristic
ingenuity, has discovered provision in the
unemployed workmen act" of parliament
which reads as follows:
Local distress committees will require
that applicants for help shall have resided
in that locality for at least twelve months,
and If the committee Is satisfied that such
applicant is honestly DESTROYS Of obtaining
work. but is temporarily unable to do so,
from exceptional causes over which he has
no control, and considers that his case is
capable of moro suitable treatment under
this act than under the poor law, it may
assist that person by aiding the emigra-
ton or removal to another area of that
person and of his dependents
Gen. Booth now proposes that the munic-
ipal and parochial authorities of the united
kingdom who are intrusted with the en-
forcement of this act pay the passage Of
honest, healthy and Industrious unem-
ployed persons to Canada and Australia.
He insists that such emigration will be per-
manent relief both to the community and
to the object of the charity. BY q math-
emattcal demonstration he shows that 1t
costs less to buy passage tickets to Canada
or Australia for an entire family than to
keep them over winter in the poor houses.
He shows that 1t costs an average of $40
per year to support each family which is
dependent upon public charity in England
He reaches this conclusion by dividing the
of families relieved. This includes the SAL
aries of various officials and attendants.
the cost of food, medicines, fuel, clothing
etc.. distributed among the poor. and fair
rate of interest upon the value of the prop.
erty used for charitable purposes. In one
English city every inmate Of the poor house
costs an average OF ia 14s., or nearly SO,
and that is a very conservative average In
the united kingdom.
Gen. Booths suggestion seems to be quite
popular among the relief authorities and
phiianthropists.