The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-11-25
'GANGsTER' SQUAD
/ N SALVATION Army
.BLOoD AND FIRE. SOLDIERS BE-
LIEvE THEY CAN HANDLE
EAST sIDERs.
CONVERT THE "GYrS"
NEW TRAINING SCHOOL TO THE
MEMORY of GENERAL BOOTH
TO TURN OUT MEN FoR
THE WORK.

NEW YORK, Nov. 2s.-The Sal
walton Army Is going to help New
York police the lower East Side.
Blood and fire" soldiers believe that
they understand how to handle the
roughs who have terrorized New York
better than the guardians Of the
peace, who work with billy and
revolver. They have always claimed
to understand the criminal Classes.
but they are going to take active
steps to train and educate their Of
fieers in the exact and accurate hand
ling Of desperate characters
The new training school, which is
being erected here as memorial to
the late General Booth. Will have a
special department.. a sort of post
prandial course, where workers who
have qualified in every other depart
ment will learn the very best methods
by which rough from 'Helfs
Kitchen or a gangsfer from Jersey
City's slums may be brought TO see
the error of his ways.
Convert the "Gyps." :.
Colonel Cox. editor OF the War
Cry and one OF the chief promoters
OF the new training school, when seen
at the Salvation Army headquarters
in West Fourteenth street, said:
we think 1t has been proven that
violence provokes only violence.
Threaten a "Gyp the Blood" with
electrocution, and he laughs: follow
a Lefty Louis" around the streets
with a gang Of detectives and special
officers and he will pride himself upon
his ability to escape and outwit them.
But let Lefty Louie" be approach
Ell by man who wears no insignia
of any organization, who Is good
pal to him and who, while refusing
to drink or to enter any evil resort,
is yet practical, efficient and kindly.
and you will find that nine 'Leftys"
out of ten will yield TO such in
fiuence. BY the time that they dis
cover that their comrade is Sal
yationist. they may. perhaps be ready
20 welcome the news. II will take,
of course. the most skilled AMI eff
cient settlement workers n the world
community.
To Get Most Gifted.
I'm our new training school we
will sift ont from all the country the
most naturally gifted social workers
and from them. in turn will be se-
les.esa the people Ter this most diff,
cult work. The training school will
be the first one In the world to have
separate classes for the different kinds
of work and to use the Municipalities
of the workers with special reference
to the classes Of society or the types
Of humanity with which they will be
occupied.
LAS a proof that the gangster and
the gunman and the desperate char
acter can be touched. Just look ut
the friendships existing ameag these
people. at the devotion of Their wives
and mothers. and at the real courage
and good nature with which many OF
them meet what is q dreadful fate.
The fact that they have committed
capital crimes and that they have
been known to be cruel and vicious
at certain times. is a state OF things
with which the State must deal, but
the "Gangster Squad" which the Sal
walton Army intends to turn out. VIII
approach the difficulty from another
angle: not that of the innate deprayity
which does most actually exist, but
that of innate gco1 feeling which does
also most positively exist in the worst
of human beings"