Part 5 (1/2)

Most unhappily, as I hold, that offer was not accepted by the British Government. If this had been done, by now hundreds of English families would have been transferred from conditions of want at home in the English towns, into those of peace and plenty upon the land abroad.

Moreover, the recent rise in the value of Canadian land has been so great that the scheme would not have cost the British taxpayer a halfpenny, or so I most firmly believe.

Unfortunately, however, my scheme was too novel in its character to appeal to the official mind, especially as its working would have involved a loan repayable by instalments, the administration of which must have been entrusted to the Salvation Army or to other charitable Organizations. So this priceless opportunity was lost, probably for ever, as the new and stricter emigration regulations adopted by Canada, as I understand, would make it extremely difficult to emigrate the cla.s.s I hoped to help, namely, indigent people of good character, resident in English cities, with growing families of children.

Young men, especially if they have been bred on the land, and young marriageable women are eagerly desired in the Colonies, including Australia; but at families, as we have read in recent correspondence in the newspapers, they look askance.

'Why do they not want families in Australia? I asked Colonel Lamb.

'Because the trouble of housing comes in. It is the same thing in Canada, it is the same thing all through the Colonies. They do not want too much trouble,' he answered.

These words define the position very accurately. 'Give us your best,'

say the Colonies. 'Give us your adult, healthy men and women whom you have paid to rear and educate, but don't bother us with families of children whom we have to house. Above all send us no damaged articles.

You are welcome to keep those at home.'

To my mind this att.i.tude, natural as it may be, creates a serious problem so far as Great Britain and Ireland are concerned, for the question will arise, Can we afford to go on parting with the good and retaining the less desirable?

On this subject I had a long argument with Colonel Lamb, and his answer to the question was in the affirmative, although I must admit that his reasons did not at all convince me. He seemed to believe that we could send out 250,000 people, chosen people, per annum for the next ten years without harm to ourselves. Well, it may be so, and, as he added, 'we are in their (that is, the Colonies') hands, and have to do what they choose to allow.'

Also his opinion was that 'the best thing possible for this country is wholesale emigration,' of course of those whom the Colonies will accept. He said, 'People here are dissatisfied with their present condition and want a change. If we had money to a.s.sist them, there is practically no limit to the number who want to go. There are tens of thousands who would conform to the Canadian regulations. One of the things we advise the man who has been forced out of the country is that rather than come into the town he should go to the Colonies.'

On the matter of the complaints which have been made in Canada of the emigrant from London, Colonel Lamb said, 'The Londoner, it is alleged, is not wanted. The Canadian is full of self-a.s.sertiveness, and the c.o.c.kney has some of that too; he does not hesitate to express his views, and you have conflicting spirits at once. The c.o.c.kney will arrive at the conclusion in about twenty-four hours that he could run Canada better than it is now being run. The Scotchman will take a week to arrive at the same conclusion, and holds his tongue about it. The c.o.c.kney says what he thinks on the first day of arrival, and the result is--fireworks. He and the Canadians do not agree to begin with; but when they get over the first pa.s.sage of arms they settle down amicably. The c.o.c.kney is finally appreciated, and, being industrious and amenable to law and order, if he has got a bit of humour he gets on all right, but not at first.'

Colonel Lamb informed me that in Australia the Labour Party is afraid of the Army because it believes 'we will send in people to bring down wages.' Therefore, the Labour Party has sidetracked General Booth's proposals. Now, however, it alleges that it is not opposed to emigration, if not on too large a scale. 'They don't mind a few girls; but they say the condition that must precede emigration is the breaking up of the land.'

Colonel Lamb appeared to desire that an Emigration Board should be appointed in England, with power and funds to deal with the distribution of the population of the Empire and to systematize emigration. To this Imperial Board, individuals or Societies, such as the Salvation Army, should, he thought, be able to submit their schemes, which schemes would receive a.s.sistance according to their merits under such limitations as the Board might see fit to impose. To such a Board he would even give power to carry out land-settlement schemes in the British Isles.

This is a great proposal, but one wonders whence the money is to come.

Also how long will it be before the Labour Parties in the various Colonies, including Canada, gain so much power that they will refuse to accept emigrants at all, except young women, or agriculturalists who bring capital with them?

But all these problems are for the future. Meanwhile it is evident that the Salvation Army manages its emigration work with extraordinary success and business skill. Those whom it sends from these sh.o.r.es for their own benefit are invariably accepted, at any rate in Canada, and provided with work on their arrival in the chosen Colony. That the selection is sound and careful is shown, also, by the fact that the Army recovers from those emigrants to whom it gives a.s.sistance a considerable percentage of the sums advanced to enable them to start life in a new land.

THE WOMEN'S SOCIAL WORK IN LONDON

At the commencement of my investigation of this branch of the Salvation Army activities in England, I discussed its general aspects with Mrs. Bramwell Booth, who has it in her charge. She pointed out to me that this Women's Social Work is a much larger business than it was believed to be even by those who had some acquaintance with the Salvation Army, and that it deals with many matters of great importance in their bearing on the complex problems of our civilization.

Among them, to take some that she mentioned, which recur to my mind, are the questions of illegitimacy and prost.i.tution, of maternity homes for poor girls who have fallen into trouble, of women thieves, of what is known as the White Slave traffic, of female children who have been exposed to awful treatment, of women who are drunkards or drug-takers, of aged and dest.i.tute women, of intractable or vicious-minded girls, and, lastly, of the training of young persons to enable them to deal scientifically with all these evils, or under the name of Slum Sisters, to wait upon the poor in their homes, and nurse them through the trials of maternity.

How practical and efficient this training is, no one can know who has not, like myself, visited and inquired into the various Inst.i.tutions and Refuges of the Army in different cities of the land. It is a wonderful thing, as has happened to me again and again, to see some quiet, middle-aged lady, often so shy that it is difficult to extract from her the information required, ruling with the most perfect success a number of young women, who, a few weeks or months before, were the vilest of the vile, and what is stranger still, reforming as she rules. These ladies exercise no severity; the punishment, which, perhaps necessarily, is a leading feature in some of our Government Inst.i.tutions, is unknown to their system. I am told that no one is ever struck, no one is imprisoned, no one is restricted in diet for any offence. As an Officer said to me:--

'If we cannot manage a girl by love, we recognize that the case is beyond us, and ask her to go away. This, however, very seldom happens.'

As a matter of fact, that case which is beyond the regenerating powers of the Army must be very bad indeed, at any rate where young people are concerned. In the vast majority of instances a cure is effected, and apparently a permanent cure. In every one of these Homes there is a room reserved for the accommodation of those who have pa.s.sed through it and gone out into the world again, should they care to return there in their holidays or other intervals of leisure. That room is always in great demand, and I can imagine no more eloquent testimony to the manner of the treatment of its occupants while they dwelt in these Homes as 'cases.'

In truth, a study of the female Officers of the Salvation Army is calculated to convert the observer not only to a belief in the right of women to the suffrage, but also to that of their fitness to rule among, or even over men. Only I never heard that any of these ladies ever sought such privileges; moreover, few of the s.e.x would care to win them at the price of the training, self-denial, and stern experience which it is their lot to undergo.