Evening star., 1919-05-04
By EvANCELINE BOOTH.
Eoanander Of the SaIvation Army In
the CAited States.

~ yHEN people ask me to what
M l attribute our success in
w war work. ! have only one
answer to give: 1t was our
preparedness.
For fifty years we have been pre-
pairing: for fifty years we knew moth
ing but war. For nifty years we have
only gone where there was no peace.
For fifty years all our days and all our
nights have been spent with broken
and wounded men.
When war swept over the world in
1914. the Salvation Army was pre-
pared We knew what panic and de-
spair meant: We knew that there
have always been separations and
bleeding wounds and lonely defeats
and nameless graves. In every city
and every nation in the world. day
and night. the Salvation Army has
found these things. For fifty years
the organization has worked in its
fight against them. 1t was for that
reason we were known as an army.
We have no more success now than
we have ever had. 1t is only that the
world. which was formerly blind to
the panic, despair and the bitterness.
had it's eyes opened by a great war,
and through it saw something then
that only the war had brought into
existence.
X
The Salvation Army has done moth
ing new. nothing different. 1t is only
that it took bombs bursting out of the
sky, torpedoes tearing open the sea
and guns hurtling death for sixty
miles, with armies of millions of men
to attract the attention of the world
to something quite old. Sometimes
the world Is little preoccupied and
not especially quick a seeing. but the
war caught its eye. and. in the course
OF observations, the work of the Sal
walton Army was noted. 1t is inter-
esting to US to see that the prepared
ness of the Salvation Army is now
called it's success.
We did not feel that we became any
more successful in the estimation Of
the world when we took the gifts we
had to offer to the battlefields of war
than when we took them to the bat
tlehelds of peace. We are grateful for
the words of praise and appreciation,
and we have been encouraged in re-
cent years as we were never encour-
aged before
The Salvation Army lassie at the
front did not regard the soldier as a
social problem to be studied and
classified any more than she regarded
tho outcast in a great city as a prod
uct of some peculiar sociological con-
dttion. She simply knew he was
mana hungry, lonely, utterly miserable
man.
The secret of success is an elusive
thing. I believe that the Salvation
Army succeeded and made it's way
into the hearts of the doughboys Of
the American expeditfonary forces be-
cause OF the simple, homely way in
which 1t administered to their wants.
The Salvation Army lassie never
cared particularly for reading studies
In sociology out Of books or bringing
before the proper committees what
should be done for a man when he ia
cold and hungry. Her way of helping
him has always been elemental 1t
has been more like a cave woman
process of reasoning which reached
out to the conclusion that il a man
10 cold and hungry he needs clothes
and comfort and friendliness on sight.
When the war broke out the simple
methods followed so directly by our or
Sanization all over the world, followed
the men into the trenches.
When England began to prepare her
f1rst 100 900 to send 10 France, the Sal
walton Army brought a few portable
cook stoves and the lassies added a
first aid kit to the ingredients for
doughnuts and cans Of coffee Wien
the Tornmies reached France the first
batch of doughnuts was cooked and
the coffee was hot. Then the first 100,-
600 moved toward the front and the
portable stoves and the makngs Of cof
fee and doughnuts trundled I'D in a
trusty little car to the front after them.
When the Yanks went over more SAL
walton Army lassies followed them.
These bows in the American ARMY haJ