TÉLÉGRAMME JE VOUS ADRESSE AINSI QU’À VOS ADHÉRENTS MES
SINCÈRES REMERCIEMENTS
MARECHAL FOCH
I am deeply touched by the high sentiment which inspired your
cablegram, and I tender you and your adherents sincere thanks.
MARSHAL FOCH
Letter from Sir Douglas Haig
Just before leaving London on Thursday for his provincial campaigns,
General Booth received the following letter from Field Marshal Sir
Douglas
Haig. The generous tribute will be read with intense satisfaction by
Salvationists the world over:
General Headquarters, British Armies in France.
March 27, 1918.
I am glad to have the opportunity of congratulating the Salvation Army
on the service which its representatives have rendered during the past
year to the British Armies in France.
The Salvation Army workers have shown themselves to be of the right
sort and I value their presence here as being one of the best
influences on the moral and spiritual welfare of the troops at the
bases. The inestimable value of these influences is realized when the
morale of the troops is afterwards put to the test at the front.
The huts which the Salvation Army has staffed have besides been an
addition to the comfort of the soldiers which has been greatly
appreciated.
I shall be glad if you will convey the thanks of all ranks of the
British Expeditionary Forces in France to the Salvation Army for its
continued good work.
D. Haig, Field Marshal,
Commanding British Armies in France.
The Following Message from Marshal Joffre:
Miss Evangeline Booth,
Apr. 9, 1919.
New York City.
“President Wilson has said that the work of the Salvation Army on the
Franco-American front needs no praise in view of the magnificent
results obtained and remains only to be admired and congratulated. I
cannot do better than to use the same words which I am sure express the
sentiments of all French soldiers. “J. Joffre.”
From Field Marshal Viscount French.
“Of all the organizations that have come into existence during the past
fifty years none has done finer work or achieved better results in all
parts of the Empire than the Salvation Army. In particular, its
activities have been of the very greatest benefit to the soldiers in
this war.”
June 16, 1918.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, writing from Oyster Bay, Long Island, under
date of April 11, 1918, has the following to say to the War Work
Executive of the Salvation Army:
“I was greatly interested in your letter quoting the letter from my son
now with Pershing in France. His testimony as to the admirable work
done by the Salvation Army agrees with all my own observations as to
what the Salvation Army has done in war and in peace. You have had to
enlarge enormously your program and readjust your work in order to meet
the need of the vast number of soldiers and sailors serving our country
overseas; and you must have funds to help you. I am informed that over
40,000 Salvationists are in the ranks of the Allied armies. I can
myself bear testimony to the fact that you have a practical social
service, combined with practical religion, that appeals to multitudes
of men who are not reached by the regular churches; and I know that you
were able to put your organization to work in France before the end of
the first month of the World War. I am glad to learn that you do not
duplicate or parallel the work done by any other organization, and that
you are in constant touch with the War Work Councils of such
organizations as the Y. M. C. A. and the Bed Cross. I happen to know
that you are now maintaining and operating 168 huts behind the lines in
France, together with 70 hostels, and that you have furnished 46
ambulances, manned and officered by Salvationists. I am particularly
interested to learn that 6000 women are knitting under the direction of
the Salvation Army, and with materials furnished by this organization
here in America, in order to turn out garments and useful articles for
the soldiers at the Front.
“Faithfully yours,
“(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt.”
April 21st, 1919.
Commander Evangeline Booth,
120 West 14th Street, New York, N. Y.
Dear Commander Booth:
I have known the Salvation Army from its beginning.
The mother of the Salvation Army was Mrs. Catherine Booth, and her
common sense and Christian spirit laid the foundations; while her
husband, General William Booth, in his impressive frame, fertility of
ideas, and invincible spirit of evangelism always seemed to me as if he
were closely related to St. Peter, the fisherman—the man of ideas and
many questions, of the Lord’s family.
General William Booth was of a discipleship that kept him always on the
“long, long trail” with a self-sacrificing spirit, but with a
cheerfulness that heard the nightingales in the early mornings that
awakened him to duty and service. He was never tired. The Salvation
Army under the present leadership of your brother, Bramwell Booth, has
“carried on” along the same roads, and with the same methods, as the
great General who has passed into the Beyond.
The Salvation Army has been itself true to the spirit of its mighty
originator during the present war. No work was too hard; no day was
long enough; no duty too simple, no self-denial was too great.
Prom my personal knowledge, the Salvation Army workers were consecrated
to their work. Just as the brave boys who carried the Flag, they were
soldiers fighting a battle, to find comforts, and a song to put music
into the hearts of the noble fellows that now lie sleeping on the
ridges of the Marne, with their graves unmarked save with a cross.
The sleepless vigilance of the Salvation Army extended from their
kitchens where they cooked for the boys, to the hospitals where they
prayed with them to the last hour when life ended in a silence, the
stillest of all slumbers.
The Armies of every country in which they labored have a record of
their faithfulness and devotion which will be sealed in the hearts of
the many thousands they helped in the days of the struggle for peace.
The question is, what can we do now to perpetuate the Salvation Army
and its work, and my reply is, that there is nothing they ask or want
that should be refused to them. They are worthy; they are competent;
they can be trusted with responsibility; and their splendid leader
seems to have almost a miraculous power for management in the work
which her father committed to her so far as America is concerned.
Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) John Wanamaker.
Cardinal’s Residence, 408 Charles Street, Baltimore.
April 16, 1919.
Hon. Charles S. Whitman, New York City.
Honorable and Dear Sir:
I have been asked by the local Commander of the Salvation Army to
address a word to you as the National Chairman of the Campaign about to
be launched in behalf of the above named organization. This I am happy
to do, and for the reason that, along with my fellow American citizens,
I rejoice in the splendid service which the Salvation Army rendered our
Soldier and Sailor Boys during the war. Every returning trooper is a
willing witness to the efficient and generous work of the Salvation
Army both at the Front, and in the camps at home. I am also the more
happy to commend this organization because it is free from sectarian
bias. The man in need of help is the object of their effort, with never
a question of his creed or color.
I trust, therefore, your efforts to raise $13,000,000 for the Salvation
Army will meet with a hearty response from our generous American
public.
Faithfully yours,
James, Cardinal, Gibbons.
Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States of America.
Paris, April 7th, 1919.
My Dear Commander Booth:
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to see something of the work
of the Salvation Army with the American troops have been made proud by
the devotion and self-sacrifice of the workers connected with your
organization.
I congratulate you and, through you, your associates, and I wish you
the best of fortune in the continuance of your splendid work.
Very sincerely yours,
L. M. House.
Commander Evangeline Booth, Salvation Army.
Evangeline Booth,
Salvation Army Headquarters, New York.
I have seen the work of the Salvation Army in France and consider it
very helpful and valuable. I trust you will be able to secure the means
not only for its maintenance but for the enlargement of its scope. It
is a good work and should be encouraged.
Leonard Wood.
Camp Funston, Kansas.
Brigadier-General Duncan wrote to Colonel Barker the
following letter:
December 7, 1917.
The Salvation Army in this its first experience with our troops has
stepped very closely into the hearts of the men. Your huts have been
open to them at all times. They have been cordially received in a
homelike atmosphere and many needs provided in religious teachings.
Your efforts have the honest support of our chaplains. I have talked
with many of our soldiers who are warm in their praise and satisfaction
in what is being done for them. For myself I feel that the Salvation
Army has a real place for its activities with our Army in France and I
offer you and your workers, men and women, good wishes and thanks for
what you have done and are doing for our men.
G. B. Duncan, Brigadier-General.
The Salvation Army is doing a great work in France and every soldier
bears testimony to the fact.
Omar Bundy, Major-General.
Headquarters First Division,
American Expeditionary Forces.
France, September 15, 1918.
From: Chief of Staff.
To: Major L. Allison Coe, Salvation Army.
Subject: Service in Operation against St. Mihiel Salient.
1. The Division Commander desires me to express to you his appreciation
of the particularly valuable service that the Salvation Army, through
you and your assistants, has rendered the Division during the recent
operation against the St. Mihiel salient.
2. You have furnished aid and comfort to the American soldier
throughout the trying experiences of the last few days, and in
accomplishing this worthy mission have spared yourself in nothing.
3. The Division Commander wishes me to thank you for the Division and
for himself.
CK/T. Campbell King, Chief of Staff.
CABLEGRAM.
Paris, December 17,1917.
Commander Miss E, Booth, 120 W. 14th St., New York.
I am glad to be able to express my appreciation of the work done by the
Salvation Army in the way of providing for the comfort and welfare of
the Command. I think the efforts of the Salvation Army are admirable
and deserving of appreciation and commendation, and I consider the
effort is made without advertisement and that it reaches and is
appreciated by those for whom it is most needed.
L. P. Murphy, Lieut.-Colonel of Cavalry.
CABLEGRAM.
Paris, December 17,1917.
Commander Miss E. Booth,
120 W. 14th Street, New York City.
I wish to express my most sincere appreciation of the work of your
organization with my regiment. Your Officer has done everything that
could be expected of any organization in carrying on his work with the
soldiers of this command, and has surpassed any such expectations. He
has assisted the soldiers in every way possible and has gained their
hearty good will. He has also shown himself willing and anxious to
carry out regulations and orders affecting his organization. As a
matter of fact, all the officers and soldiers of this command are most
enthusiastic about the help of the Salvation Army, and you can hear
nothing but praise for its work. The work of your organization, both
religious and material, has been wholesome and dignified, and I desire
you to know that it is appreciated.
J. L. Hines,
Colonel, Sixteenth Infantry.
In sending a contribution toward the expenses of the War Work, Colonel
George B. McClellan wrote:
Treasurer, Salvation Army, July 24, 1918.
120 West 14th Street, New York City.
Dear Sir:
All the Officers I have talked with who have been in the trenches have
enthusiastically praised the work the Salvation Army is doing at the
front. They are agreed that for coolness under fire, cheerfulness under
the most adverse conditions, kindness, helpfulness and real efficiency,
your workers are unsurpassed.
Will you accept the enclosed check as my modest contribution to your
War
Fund, and believe me to be
Yours very truly,
Geo. B. McClelland Lt.-Col. Ord. Dept., N. A.
CABLEGRAM.
Paris, December 17,1917.
Commander Miss B. Booth,
120 West 14th Street, New York City, N. Y.
I have carefully observed the work of the Salvation Army from their
first arrival in Training Area First Division American Expeditionary
Force to date. The work they have done for the enlisted men of the
Division and the places of amusement and recreation that they have
provided for them, are of the highest order. I unhesitatingly state
that, in my opinion, the Salvation Army has done more for the enlisted
men of the First Division than any other organization or society
operating in France.
F. G. Lawton,
Colonel, Infantry, National Army.
To Whom It May Concern:
The work of the Salvation Army as illustrated by the work of Major S.
H. Atkins is duplicated by no one. He has been Chaplain and more
besides. He has the confidence of officers and men. Major Atkins, as
typifying the Salvation Army, has been forward at the very front with
what is even more important than the rear area work.
Theodore Roosevelt.
The following letter was sent to Major Atkins of the Salvation Army:
Headquarters, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry,
France, December 26, 1917.
I wish to thank you for the great work you have been doing here among
the men of this battalion. You have added greatly to the happiness and
contentment of us all; giving, as you have, an opportunity for good,
clean entertainment and pleasure.
In religious work you have done much. As you know, this regiment has no
chaplain, and you have to a large extent taken the place of one here.
For myself, and on behalf of the officers stationed here, I wish to
express my appreciation of the work that you have been doing here, and
the hope that you can accompany the battalion wherever the fortune of
war may lead us.
Wishing you a very happy and successful New Year, I am
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
Major (U.S.R.), 26th Infantry.
When Captain Archibald Roosevelt was lying wounded in Red Cross
Hospital No. 1 he wrote the following letter to the same officer:
Red Cross Hospital No. 1.
July 10, 1918.
“You have, by your example, helped the men morally and physically. By
your continued presence in the most dangerous and uncomfortable
periods, you have made yourself the comrade and friend of every officer
and man in our battalion. It is in this way that you have filled a
position which the other charitable organizations had left vacant.
“Let me also mention that, perfect Democrat that you are, you have
realized the necessity of discipline, and have helped make the
discipline understood by these men and officers.
“If all the Salvation Army workers are like you, I sincerely hope to
see the time when there is a Salvation Army officer with each battalion
in the camp.”
Before leaving France for the United States, two Salvation
Army lassies received the following letter:
I was very sorry to hear that you had been taken from this division,
and desire to express my appreciation of the excellent assistance you
have been to us.
In all of our “shows” you have been with us, and I wish that I knew of
the many sufferers you have cheered and made more comfortable. They are
many and, I am positive, will always have grateful thoughts of you.
I have seen you enduring hardships—going without food and sleep,
working day and night, sometimes under fire, both shell and avion—and
never have you been anything but cheerful and willing.
I thank you and your organization for all of this, and assure you of
the respect and gratitude of the entire division.
J. I. Mabee, Colonel, Medical Corps,
Division Surgeon.
CABLE.
January 17, 1918.
The Salvation Army, New York:
As Inspector General of the First Division I have inspected all the
Salvation Army huts in this Division area and I am glad to inform you
that your work here is a well-earned success. Your huts are warm, dry,
light, and, I believe, much appreciated by all the men in this
Division. To make these huts at all homelike under present conditions
requires energy and ability. I know that the Salvation Army men in this
Division have it and am very willing to so testify.
Conrad S. Babcock, Lieut.-Colonel,
Inspector General, First Division.
“The Salvation Army keeps open house, and any time that a body of men
come back from the front lines, in from a convoy, there is hot coffee
and sometimes home-made doughnuts (all free to the men). I was in
command of a town where the hut never closed till 3 or 4 in the
morning, and their girls baked pies and made doughnuts up to the front,
under shell fire, for our infantrymen. A Salvation Army lassie is safe
without an escort anywhere in France where there is an American
soldier. That speaks for itself. I am for any organization that is out
to do something for my men, and I think that it is the idea of the
American people when they give their money. What we want is someone who
is willing to come over here and do something for the boys, regardless
of the fact that it may not net any gain—in fact, may not help them to
gather enough facts for a lecture tour when they return home.”
Headquarters, Third Division,
September 5,1918.
My Dear Mr. Leffingwell:
Your letter of July 22d just received. It has, perhaps, been somewhat
delayed in reaching me, owing to the fact that I have recently been
transferred to another division. I only wish things had been so that I
might have granted you or a representative of the Salvation Army an
interview when I was in the States recently, but, being under orders, I
could wait for nothing. Whatever I may have said, in a casual way, of
the work of the Salvation Army in France, I assure you was all
deserved. Your organization has been doing a splendid work for the men
of my former division and other troops who have come in contact with
it. I have often remarked, as have many of the officers, that after the
war the Salvation Army is going to receive such a boom from the boys
who have come in touch with it over here that it will seem like a
veritable propaganda! Why shouldn’t it? For your work has been
conducted in such a quiet, unostentatious, unselfish way that only a
man whose sensibilities are dead can fail to appreciate it. I have
found several of your workers, whose names at this moment I am unable
to recall, putting up with all sorts of hardships and inconveniences,
working from daylight until well into the night that the boys might be
cheered in one way or another. Your shacks have always been at the
disposal of the chaplains for their regimental services. Whether Mass
for the Catholic chaplains or Holy Communion for an Episcopalian
chaplain, they always found a place to set up their altars in the
Salvation Army huts; and the Protestant chaplains, also the Jewish,
always, to my knowledge, were given its use for their services. I have
found your own services have been very acceptable to the boys, in
general, but perhaps your doughnut program, with hot coffee or
chocolate, means as much as anything. Not that, like those of old, we
follow the Salvation Army because we can get filled up, but we all like
their spirit. More than on one occasion do I know of troops moving at
night—and pretty wet and hungry—that have been warmed and fed and sent
on their way with new courage because of what some Salvation Army
worker and hut furnished. And as they went their way many fine things
were said about the Salvation Army. I am sure, as a result of this
work, you have won the favor and confidence of hundreds of these
soldier lads, and, if I am not terribly mistaken, when we get home the
Salvation tambourine will receive greater consideration than
heretofore.
I am glad to express my feelings for your work. God bless you in it,
and always!
Sincerely yours,
Lyman Bollins, Division Chaplain,
Headquarters, Third Division, A. E. F., via New York.
At the Front in France, June 12, 1918.
Commissioner Thomas Estill,
Salvation Army, Chicago.
My Dear Commissioner:
We are engaged in a great battle. My time is all taken with our wounded
and dead. Still I cannot resist the temptation to take a few moments in
which to express our appreciation of the splendid aid given our
soldiers by the Salvation Army.
The work of the Salvation Army is not in duplication of that of any
other organization. It is entirely original and unique. It fills a
long-felt want. Some day the world will know the aid that you have
rendered our soldiers. Then you will receive every dollar you need.
Your work is also greatly appreciated by the French people. I have
never heard a single unfavorable comment on the Salvation Army. They
are respected everywhere. Their unselfish devotion to our well, sick,
wounded and dead is above any praise that I can bestow. God will surely
greatly reward them.
I heartily congratulate you on the class of workers you have sent over
here. I pray that your invaluable aid may be extended to our troops
everywhere. God bless you and yours,
In His name,
(Signed) Thomas J. Dickson,
Chaplain with rank of Major,
Sixth Field Artillery, First Division, U. S. Army.
An appreciation written concerning the first Salvation
Army chaplain that was appointed after the war started:
Camp Cody, New Mexico,
January 16, 1918.
Major E. C. Clemans,
136th Infantry, Camp Cody, N. M.
Commissioner Thomas Estill, Chicago, Ill.
I have been associated with the chaplain now for nearly four months. I
have found him a Christian soldier and gentleman. He is “on the job”
all the time and no Chaplain in this Division is doing more faithful
and effective work. He is thoroughly evangelistic, is burdened for the
souls of his men and is working for their salvation not in but from
their sins. He is a “man’s man,” knows how to approach men and knows
how and does get hold of their affections in such a way that he is a
help and a comfort to them. He brings things to pass.
The Salvation Army may be well pleased that it is so well represented
in the Army as it is by Chaplain Kline.
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) Ezra C. Clemans,
Senior Chaplain, 34th Division.
July 11, 1918.
I have been familiar with the work of the Salvation Army for years, and
the organization from the beginning of the war has been doing a
wonderful work with the Allied forces and since the entering of the
United States into the struggle has given splendid aid and coöperation
not only in connection with the war activities at home but also with
our forces abroad. Their work is entitled to the sincere admiration of
every American citizen.
Major Edwin F. Glenn.
To Whom It May Concern:
It gives me the greatest pleasure to testify to the very excellent work
of the Salvation Army as I have seen it in this division. I have seen
the work done by this organization for ten months, under all sorts of
conditions, and it has always been of the highest character. At the
start, the Salvation Army was handicapped by lack of funds, but even
under adverse conditions, it did most valuable work in maintaining
cheerful recreation centres for the men, often in places exposed to
hostile shell-fire. The doughnut and pie supply has been maintained.
This seems a little thing, but it has gone a long way to keep the men
cheerful. All the Salvation Army force has been untiring in its work
under very trying conditions, and as a result, I believe it has gained
the respect and affection of officers and men more than any similar
organization.
Albert J. Myers, Jr., Major, National Army.
1st Div., A. E. F. (Captain, Cavalry, U.S.A.)
Extract from letter from Captain Charles W. Albright:
Q. M., R. C., France.
“As to the Salvation Army, well, if they wanted our boys to lie down
for them to walk on, to keep their feet from getting muddy, the boys
would gladly do so.
“From everyone, officers and men alike, nothing but the highest praise
is given the Salvation Army. They are right in the thick of danger,
comforting and helping the men in the front line, heedless of shot,
shell or gas, the U. S. Army in France, as a unit, swears by the
Salvation Army.
“I am proud to have a sister in their ranks.”
An old regular army officer who returned to Paris last week said:
“I wish every American who has stood on street corners in America and
sneered at the work of the Salvation Army could see what they are doing
for the boys in France.
“They do not proclaim that they are here for investigation or for
getting atmosphere for War romances. They have not come to furnish
material for Broadway press agents. They do not wear, ‘Oh, such
becoming uniforms,’ white shoes, dainty blue capes and bonnets, nor do
they frequent Paris tea rooms where the swanky British and American
officers put up.
“Take it from me, these women are doing almighty fine work. There are
twenty-two of them here in France. We army men have given them
shell-shattered and cast-off field kitchens to work with, and oh, man,
the doughnuts, the pancakes and the pies they turn out!
“I’m an old army officer, but what I like about the Salvation Army is
that it doesn’t cater to officers. It is for the doughboys first, last
and all the time. The Salvation Army men do not wear Sam Browne belts;
they do as little handshaking with officers as possible.
“They cash the boys’ checks without question, and during the month of
April in a certain division the Salvation Army sent home $20,000 for
the soldiers. The Rockefeller Foundation hasn’t as yet given the
Salvation Army a million-dollar donation to carry on its work. Fact is,
I don’t know just how the Salvation Army chaplains and lassies do get
along. But get along they do.
“Perhaps some of the boys and officers give them a lift now and then
when the sledding is rough. They don’t aim to make a slight profit as
do some other organizations.
“Ever since Cornelius Hickey put up ‘Hickey’s Hut,’ the first Salvation
Army hut in France, they have been working at a loss. I saw an American
officer give a Salvation Army chaplain 500 francs out of his pay at a
certain small town in France recently.
“The work done in ‘Hickey’s Hut’ did much to endear the Salvation folks
to the doughboys. When a letter arrived in France some months ago
addressed only to ‘Hickey’s Hut, France,’ it reached its destination
_toute de suite_, forty-eight hours after it arrived.
“The French climate has hit our boys hard. It is wet and penetratingly
cold. Goes right to the marrow, and three suits of underwear are no
protection against it. When the lads returned from training camp or the
trenches, wet, cold, hungry and despondent, they found a welcome in
‘Hickey’s Hut.’
“Not a patronizing, holier-than-thou,
we-know-we-are-doing-a-good-work-and-hope-you-doughboys-appreciate-it
sort of a welcome, but a good old Salvation Army, Bowery Mission
welcome, such as Tim Sullivan knew how to hand out in the old days.
“Around a warm fire with men who spoke their own language and who did
not pretend to be above them in the social scale the doughboys forgot
that they were four thousand miles from home and that they couldn’t
’sling the lingo.’
“I saw a group of lads on the Montdidier front who had not been paid in
three months, standing cursing their luck. They had no money,
therefore, they could not buy anything.
“The Salvation Army had been apprised by telegraph that the doughboys
were playing in hard luck. Presto! Out from Paris came a truck loaded
with everything to eat. The truck was unloaded and the boys paid for
whatever they wanted with slips of paper signed with their John
Hancocks. The Salvation Army lassies asked no questions, but accepted
the slips of paper as if they were Uncle Sam’s gold.
“And one of the most useful institutions in Europe where war rages is
one that has no publicity bureau and has no horns to toot. This is the
Salvation Army. In the estimation of many, the Salvation Army goes way
ahead of the work of many of the other war organizations working here.
I see brave women and young women of the Salvation Army every day in
places that are really hazardous.”
First Lieutenant Marion M. Marcus, Jr., Field Artillery, wrote to one
of our leading officers:
October 9, 1918.
“If the people at home could see the untiring and absolute devotion of
the workers of the Salvation Army, in serving and caring for our men,
they would more than give you the support you ask. The way the men and
women expose themselves to the dangers of the front lines and hardships
has more than endeared them to every member of the American
Expeditionary Forces, and they are always in the right spot with cheer
of hot food and drink when it is most appreciated.”
Extract From Letter.
“Away up front where things break hard and rough for us, and we are
hungry and want something hot, we can usually find it in some old
partly destroyed building, which has been organized into a shack
by—well, guess —the Salvation Army.
“They are the soldier’s friend. They make no display or show of any
kind, but they are fast winning a warm corner in the heart of
everyone.”
“I feel it is my duty to drop you a few lines to let you know how the
boys over here appreciate what the Salvation Army is doing for them. It
is a second home to us. There is always a cheerful welcome awaiting us
there and _I have yet to meet a sour-faced cleric behind the counter_.
One Salvation Army worker has his home in a cellar, located close to
the front-line trenches. He cheerfully carries on his wonderful work
amid the flying of shells and in danger of gas. He is one fine fellow,
always greeting you with a smile. He serves the boys with hot coffee
every day, free of charge, and many times he has divided his own bread
with the tired and hungry boys returning from the trenches. In the
evening he serves coffee and doughnuts at a small price. Say, who
wouldn’t be willing to fight after feasting on that?
“In the many rest camps you will find the Salvation Army girls. They
are located so close to the front-line trenches that they have to wear
their gas masks in the slung position, and they also have their tin
hats ready to put on. The girls certainly are a fine, jolly bunch, and
when it comes to baking pies and doughnuts they are hard to beat. The
boys line up a half hour before time so as to be sure they get their
share. I had the pleasure of talking to a mother and her daughter and
they told me they had sold out everything they had to the boys with the
exception of some salmon and sardines on which they were living—salmon
for dinner and sardines for supper. They stood it all with big smiles
and those smiles made me smile when I thought of my troubles.
“In the trenches the boys become affected with body lice, known as
cooties. A good hot bath is the only real cure for them. While on the
way to a bath-house a Salvation Army worker overtook us. He was riding
in a Ford which had seen better days. The springs on it were about all
in and it made a noise like someone calling for mercy. The Salvation
Army worker pulled up in front of us and with a broad smile on his face
said: “Room for half a ton!” We did not need a second invitation and we
soon had poor Henry loaded down. I thought sure it would give out, but
the worker only laughed about it and kept on feeding the machine more
gas as we cheered until it started away with us.
“I want to tell you what the Salvation Army does for the moral side of
the soldier. The American soldier needs the guidance of God over here
more than he ever did in his whole life. Away from home and in a
foreign land in every corner, one must have Divine guidance to keep him
on the narrow path of life. If it was not for the _workers of God over
here the boys would gradually break away and then I’m afraid we would
not have the right kind of fighters to hold up our end_. Of course,
prayers alone won’t satisfy the appetite of the American soldier, and
the Salvation Army girls get around that by baking for the boys. They
believe in satisfying the cravings of the stomach as well as the
craving of the soul and mind. I always enjoy the sermons at the
Salvation Army. A good, every-day sermon is always appreciated. The
Salvation Army helps you along in their good old way, and they don’t
believe in preaching all day on what you should do and what you
shouldn’t do. The girls are a fine bunch of singers and their singing
is enjoyed very much by all of the boys. It is a treat to see an
American girl so close to the front and a still better treat to listen
to one sing.
“The Salvation Army does much good work in keeping the boys in the
right spirit so that they are glad to go back to the trenches when
their turn comes. There is no Salvation Army hut on this front. I often
wish there was one on every front. I believe the Salvation Army does
not get its full credit over in the States. Perhaps the people over
there do not understand the full meaning of the work it is doing over
here. I want the Salvation Army to know that it has all of the boys
over here back of it and we want to keep up the good work. We will go
through hell, if necessary, because we know the folks back home are
back of us. We want the Salvation Army to feel the same way. The _boys
over here are really back of it and we want you to continue your good
work_.”
“There is just one thing more I wish to speak of, and that is the
little old Salvation Army. You will never see me, nor any of the other
boys over here, laugh at their street services in the future, and if I
see anyone else doing that little thing that person is due for a busted
head! I haven’t seen where they are raising a tenth the money some of
the other societies are, but they are the topnotchers of them all as
the soldiers’ friend, and their handouts always come at the right time.
Some of those girls work as hard as we do.”
“The Salvation Army over here is doing wonderful work. _They haven’t
any shows or music, but they certainly know what pleases the boys
most_, and feed us with homemade apple pie or crullers, with lemonade—a
great big piece of pie or three crullers, with a large cup of lemonade,
for a franc (18-1/2 cents).
“These people are working like beavers, and the people in the States
ought to give them plenty of credit and appreciate their wonderful help
to the men over here.” “We were in a bomb-proof semi-dugout, in the
heart of a dense forest, within range of enemy guns, my Hebrew comrade
and I. We were talking of the fate that brought us here—of the
conditions as we left them at home. There was the thought of what
‘might’ happen if we were to return to America minus a limb or an eye;
we were discussing the great economic and moral reform which is a
certainty after the war, when through the air came the harmonious
strumming of a guitar accompanying a sweet, feminine voice, and we
heard:
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom;
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on.
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—
One step enough for me.
“It was the Salvation Army! In a desert of human hearts, many of them
wounded with heartache, these brave, brave servants of the Son of David
came to cheer us up and make life more bearable.
“In our outfit are Greeks, Italians, Bohemians, Irish, Jews—all of them
loyal Americans—and the Salvation Army serves each with an impartial
self-sacrifice which should forever still the voices of critics who
condemn sending Army lassies over here.
“Those in the ranks are men. The Salvation Army women are
admired—almost worshipped—but respected and safe. Men by the thousands
would lay down their lives for the Salvationists, and not till after
the war will the full results of this sacrifice by Salvation Army
workers bear fruit. But now, with so many strong temptations to go the
wrong way, here are noble girls roughing it, smiling at the hardships,
singing songs, making doughnuts for the doughboys, and always reminding
us, even in danger, that it is not all of ‘life to live,’ bringing to
us recollections of our mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, and if
anyone questions, ’Is it worth while?’ the answer is: ‘A thousand times
yes!’ and I cannot refrain from sending my hearty thanks for all this
service means to us.
“A few miles in back of us now, a half dozen Connecticut girls
representing the Salvation Army are doing their bit to make things
brighter for us, and say, maybe those girls cannot bake. Every day they
furnish us with real homemade crullers and pies at a small cost, and
their coffee, holy smoke! it makes me homesick to even write about it.
The girls have their headquarters in an old tumble-down building and
they must have some nerve, for the Boche keeps dropping shells all
around them day and night, and it would only take one of those shells
to blow the whole outfit into kingdom come.”
In a letter from a private to his mother while he was lying wounded in
the hospital, he says of the Salvation Army and Red Cross:
“Most emphatically let me say that they both are giving real service to
the men here and both are worthy of any praise or help that can be
given them. This is especially so of the Salvation Army, because it is
not fully understood just what they are doing over here. They are the
only ones that, regardless of shells or gas, feed the boys in the
trenches and bear home to them the realization of what God really is at
the very moment when our brave lads are facing death. Their timely
phrases about the Christ, handed out with their doughnuts and coffee,
have turned many faltering souls back to the path and they will never
forget it. ’Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity’ surely holds good
here. You may not realize or think it possible, but a large majority of
the boys carry Bibles and there are often heated arguments over the
different phrases.
“I have just turned my pockets inside out and the tambourine could hold
no more, but it was all I had and I am still in debt to the Salvation
Army.
“For hot coffee and cookies when I was shivering like an aspen, for
buttons and patches on my tattered uniform, for steering me clear of
the camp followers; but more than all for the cheery words of solace
for those ‘gone West,’ for the blessed face of a woman from the
homeland in the midst of withering blight and desolation—for these I am
indebted to the Salvation Army.”
CABLEGRAM.
Paris, December 17, 1917.
Commander Miss E. Booth,
120 W. 14th Street, New York, N. Y.
Being a Private, I am one of the many thousands who enjoy the
kindnesses and thoughtful recreation in the Salvation hut. The huts are
always crowded when the boys are off duty, for ’tis there we find
warmth of body and comradeship, pleasures in games and music, delight
in the palatable refreshments, knowledge in reading periodicals,
convenience in the writing material at our disposal, and other
home-like touches for enjoyment. The courtesy and good-will of the hut
workers, combined with these good things, makes the huts a resort of
real comfort with the big thought of salvation in Christ predominating
over all. Appreciation of these huts, and all they mean to the soldier
in this terrible war, rises full in all our hearts.
Clinton Spencer,
Private, Motor Action.
“I just used to love to listen to the Salvation Army at 6th and Penn
Streets, but I never dreamed of seeing them over here. And when I first
saw four girls cooking and baking all day I wondered what it was all
about.
“But I didn’t have long to find out, for that night I saw these same
girls put on their gas masks at the alert and start for the trenches.
Then I started to ask about them. I never spoke to the girls, but
fellows who had been in the trenches told me that they came up under
shell fire to give the boys pies or doughnuts or little cakes or cocoa
or whatever they had made that day. I thought that great of the
Salvation Army. And many a boy who got help through them has a warm
spot in his heart for them.
“You can see by the paper I write on who gave it to us. It is Salvation
Army paper. Altogether I say give three hearty cheers for the Salvation
Army and the girls who risk their own lives to give our boys a little
treat.”
“I am going to crow about our real friends here—and it is the verdict
of all the boys—it is the Salvation Army, Joe. _That is the boys’
mother and father here. It is our home_. They have a treat for us boys
every night—that is, cookies, doughnuts or pie—about 9 o’clock. But
that is only a little of them. The big thing is the spirit—the feeling
a boy gets of being home when he enters the hut and meets the lassies
and lads who call themselves the soldiers of Christ, and we are proud
to call them brother soldiers. We think the world of them! So, Joe,
whenever you get a chance to do the Salvation Army a good turn, by word
or deed, do so, as thereby you will help us. When we get back we are
going to be the Salvation Army’s big friend, and you will see it become
one of the United States’ great organizations.”
“My life as a soldier is not quite as easy as it was in Rochester, but
still I am not going to give up my religion, and I am not ashamed to
let the other fellows know that I belong to the Salvation Army.
Sometimes they try to get me to smoke or go and have a glass of beer
with them, but I tell them that I am a Salvationist. There are twenty
fellows in a hut, so they used to make fun at me when I used to say my
prayers. Once in awhile I used to have a _pair of shoes_ or a coat or
something, thrown at me. I used to think what I could do to stop them
throwing things at me, so I thought of a plan and waited. It was two or
three nights before they threw anything again. One night, as I was
saying my prayers, someone threw his shoes at me. After I got through I
picked up the shoes and took out my shoe brushes and polished and
cleaned the shoes thrown at me, and from that night to now I have never
had a thing thrown at me. The fellow came to me in a little while and
said he was sorry he had thrown them. There are four or five
Salvationists in our company—one was a Captain in the States. The
Salvation Army has three big huts here among the soldier boys. We have
some nice meetings here, and they have reading-rooms and writing and
lunch-rooms, so I spend most of my time there.”
Letter of Commendation RE Salvation Army.
U.S.S. Point Bonita, 15 October, 1918.
Miss Evangeline Booth, Commander,
Care of Salvation Army Headquarters,
14th Street, New York City.
Dear Miss Booth:—
We want to thank you for presenting our crew with an elegant phonograph
and 25 records. We are all going to take up a collection and buy a lot
of records and I guess we will be able to pass the time away when we
are not on watch.
We have a few men in the crew who have made trips across on transports
and they say that every soldier and sailor has praised the Salvation
Army way-up-to-the-sky for all the many kindnesses shown them.
We also want to thank you for the kindness shown to one of our crew.
The Major who gave us the present was the best yet and so was the
gentleman who drove the auto about ten miles to our ship. That is the
Salvation Army all over. During the war or in times of peace, your
organization reaches the hearts of all.
We all would like to thank Mr. Leffingwell for his great kindness in
helping us.
The undersigned all have the warmest sort of feeling for you and the
Salvation Army.
Many, many thanks, from the ship’s crew.
“I was down to the Salvation Army the other day helping them cook
doughnuts and they sure did taste good, and the fellows fairly go crazy
to get them, too. Anything that is homemade don’t last long around
here, and when they get candy or anything sweet there is a line about a
block long.
“Notice the paper this is written on? Well, I can’t say enough about
them. They sure are a treat to us boys, and almost every night they
have good eats for us. One night it is lemonade, pies and coffee, and
the next it is doughnuts and coffee, and they are just like mother
makes. There are two girls here that run the place, and they are real
American girls, too. The first I have seen since I have been in France,
and I’ll say they are a treat!
“Hogan and I have been helping them, and now I cook pies and doughnuts
as well as anyone. We sure do have a picnic with them and enjoy helping
out once in awhile. One thing I want you to do is to help the Salvation
Army all you can and whenever you get a chance to lend a helping hand
to them do it, for they sure have done a whole lot for your boy, and if
you can get them a write-up in the papers, why do it and I will be
happy.”
From Lord Derby.
“The splendid work which the Salvation Army has done among the soldiers
during the war is one for which I, as Secretary of State for War,
should like to thank them most sincerely; it is a work which is
deserving of all support.”
State of New Jersey
Executive Department
Trenton.
My Dear Mr. Battle: December 27, 1917.
I have learned of the campaign of the Salvation Army to raise money for
its war activities. The work of the Salvation Army is at all times
commendable and deserving, but particularly so in its relation to the
war.
I sincerely hope that the campaign will be very successful.
Cordially yours,
(Signed) Walter B. Edge,
Mr. George Gordon Battle, Governor.
General Chairman, 37 Wall Street, New York City.
Governor Charles S. Whitman’s Address at Luncheon at Hotel Ten Eyck,
Albany, New York, December 8, 1917.
“I take especial pleasure in offering my tribute of respect and
appreciation to the Salvation Army. I have known of its work as
intimately as any man who is not directly connected with the
organization. In my position as a judge and a district attorney of New
York City for many years, I always found the Salvation Army a great
help in solving the various problems of the poor, the criminal and
distressed.
“Frequently while other agencies, though good, hesitated, there was
never a case where there was a possibility that relief might be
brought—never was a case of misery or violence so low, that the
Salvation Army would not undertake it.
“The Salvation Army lends its manhood and womanhood to go ‘Over There’
from our States, and our State, to labor with those who fight and die.
There is very little we can do, but we can help with our funds.”
“The Salvation Army is worthy of the support of all right-thinking
people. Its main purpose is to reclaim men and women to decency and
good citizenship. This purpose is being prosecuted not only with energy
and enthusiasm but with rare tact and judgment.
“The sphere of the Army’s operations has now been extended to the
battlefields of Europe, where its consecrated workers will coöperate
with the Y.M.C.A., K. of C., and kindred organizations.
“It gives me pleasure to commend the work of this beneficent
organization, and to urge our people to remember its splendid service
to humanity.
“Very truly yours,
“ Albert E. Sleeper,
“Governor.”
Endorsement of January 25, 1918.
Governor Hugh M. Dorsey, of Georgia.
The Salvation Army has been a potent force for good everywhere, so far
as I know. They are rendering to our soldiers “somewhere in France” the
most invaluable aid, ministering not only to their spiritual needs, but
caring for them in a material way. This they have done without the
blare of trumpets.
Many commanding officers certify to the fact that the Salvation Army is
not only rendering most effective work, but that this work is of a
distinctive character and of a nature not covered by the activities of
other organizations ministering to the needs of the soldier boys. In
other words, they are filling that gap in the army life which they have
always so well filled in the civil life of our people.
State of Utah Executive Office
Salt Lake City, January 21, 1918.
“I have learned with a great deal of interest of the splendid work
being done by the Salvation Army for the moral uplift of the soldiers,
both in the training camps and in the field. I am very glad to endorse
this work and to express the hope that the Salvation Army may find a
way to continue and extend its work among the soldiers.”
(Signed) Simon Bamberg,
Governor.
From a Proclamation by Governor Brumbaugh.
To the People of Pennsylvania:
I have long since learned to believe in the great, good work of the
Salvation Army and have given it my approval and support through the
years. This mighty body of consecrated workers are like gleaners in the
fields of humanity. They seek and succor and save those that most need
and least receive aid. Now, THEREFORE, I, Martin G. Brumbaugh, Governor
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do cordially commend the work of
the Salvation Army and call upon our people to give earnest heed to
their call for assistance, making liberal donations to their
praiseworthy work and manifesting thus our continued and resolute
purpose to give our men in arms unstinted aid and to support gladly all
these noble and sacrificing agencies that under God give hope and help
to our soldiers.
[SEAL]
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State, at the City of
Harrisburg, this seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord one
thousand nine hundred and eighteen, and of the Commonwealth the one
hundred and forty-second.
By the Governor:
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
copy/h
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Executive Department,
State House, Boston, February 15, 1918.
It gives me pleasure to add my word of approval to the very noble work
that is being done by the Salvation Army for the men now serving the
country. The Salvation Army has for many years been doing very valuable
work, and the extension of its labors into the ranks of the soldiers
has not lessened in any degree its power of accomplishment. The
Salvation Army can render most efficient service. It should be the aim
of every one of us in Massachusetts to assist in every way the work
that is being done for the soldiers. We cannot do too much of this kind
of work for them—they deserve and need it all. I urge everybody in
Massachusetts to assist the Salvation Army in every way possible, to
the end that Massachusetts may maintain her place in the forefront of
the States of the Union who are assisting the work of the Army.
(Signed) Samuel W. McCall,
Governor.
Proclamation.
To the People of the State of Maryland:
I have been very much impressed with the good work which is being done
in this country by the Salvation Army, and I am not at all surprised at
the great work which it is doing at the front, upon or near the
battlefields of Europe. It is doing not only the same kind of work
being done by the Y.M.C.A. and the Knights of Columbus, but work in
fields decidedly their own.
It is now undertaking to raise $1,000,000 for the National War Service
and it is preparing a hutment equipped with libraries, daily
newspapers, games, light refreshments, _etc_., in every camp in France.
Now, therefore, I, Emerson C. Harrington, Governor of Maryland,
believing that the effect and purposes for which the Salvation Army is
asking this money, are deserving of our warmest support, do hereby call
upon the people of Maryland to respond as liberally as they can in this
war drive being made by the Salvation Army to enable them more
efficiently to render service which is so much needed.
[The Great Seal of the State of Maryland]
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be
hereto affixed the Great Seal of Maryland at Annapolis, Maryland, this
fourteenth day of February, in the year one thousand nine hundred and
eighteen.
Emerson C. Harrington.
By the Governor,
Thos. W. Simmons, Secretary of State.
“The Salvation Army is peculiarly equipped for this kind of service. I
have watched the career of this organization for many years, and I know
its leaders to be devoted and capable men and women.
“Of course, any agency which can in any way ameliorate the condition of
the boys at the front should receive encouragement.”
(Signed) Frank C. Lowden,
Governor of Illinois.
“I join with thousands of my fellow citizens in having a great
admiration for the splendid work which has already been accomplished by
the Salvation Army in the alleviation of suffering, the spiritual
uplift of the masses, and its substantial and prayerful ministrations.
“The Salvation Army does its work quietly, carefully, persistently and
effectively. Our patriotic citizenry will quickly place the stamp of
approval upon the great work being done by the Salvation Army among the
private soldiers at home and abroad.”
(Signed) Governor Brough of Arkansas.
Lansing, Michigan, June 13, 1918.
To Whom It May Concern:
Among the various organizations doing war work in connection with the
American Army, none are found more worthy of support than the Salvation
Army. Entering into its work with the whole-hearted zeal which has
characterized its movement in times of peace, it has won the highest
praise of both officers and soldiers alike.
It is an essential pleasure to commend the work of the Salvation Army
to the people of Michigan with the urgent request that its war
activities be given your generous support.
Albert E. Sleeper,
Governor of the State of Michigan.
Mark E. McKee,
Secretary, Counties Division, Michigan War Board.
State of Kansas
Arthur Capper, Governor,
Topeka
August 8, 1917.
I have been greatly pleased with the war activities of the Salvation
Army and want to express my appreciation of the splendid service
rendered by that organization on the battlefield of Europe ever since
the war began. It is a most commendable and a most patriotic thing to
do and I hope the people of Kansas will give the enterprise their
generous support.
Very respectfully,
(Signed) Arthur Capper, Governor.
“Best wishes for the success of your work. As the Salvation Army has
done so much good in time of peace, it has multiplied opportunities to
do good in the horrors of war, if given the necessary means.”
(Signed) Miles Poindexter,
Senator from Washington.
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.
January 8, 1918.
Colonel Adam Gifford, Salvation Army,
8 East Brookline Street, Boston, Mass.
My Dear Colonel Gifford:
I desire to write you in highest commendation of the work the Salvation
Army is doing in France. During last November I was behind the French
and English fronts, and unless one has been there they cannot realize
the assistance to spirit and courage given to the soldiers by the “hut”
service of the Salvation Army.
The only particular in which the Salvation Army fell short was that
there were not sufficient huts for the demands of the troops. The huts
I saw were crowded and not commodious.
Behind the British front I heard several officers state that the
service of the Salvation Army was somewhat different from other
services of the same kind, but most effective.
With kindest regards, I remain,
Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) George Holden Tinkham,
Congressman.
This Condolence Card conveyed the sympathy of the Commander to the
friends of the fallen. Forethought had prepared this some time before
the first American had made the supreme sacrifice.
Looking
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for
His Friends
122 W. 14th Street New York
My dear Friend:
I must on behalf of The Salvation Army, take this opportunity to say
how deeply and truly we share your grief at this time of your
bereavement. It will be hard for you to understand how anything can
soothe the pain made by your great loss, but let me point you to the
one Jesus Christ, who acquainted Himself with all our griefs so that He
might heal the heart’s wounds made by our sorrows and whose love for us
was so vast that He bled and died to save us.
It may be some solace to think that your loved one poured out his life
in a War in which high and holy principles are involved, and also that
he was quick to answer the call for men.
Believe me when I say that we are praying and will pray for you.
Yours in sympathy.
(Signed) Evangeline Booth
Commander
“ Commander Evangeline Booth:
“The comfort and solace contained in the beautiful card of sympathy I
recently received from you is more than you can ever know. With all my
heart I am very grateful to you and can only assure you feebly of my
deep appreciation.
“It has made me realize more than ever before the fundamental
principles of Christianity upon which your Army is built and organized,
for how truly does it comfort the widow and fatherless in their
affliction.
“Tucked away as my two babies and I are in a tiny Wisconsin town, we
felt that our grief, while shared in by our good friends, was just a
passing emotion to the rest of the world. But when a card such as yours
comes, extending a heart of sympathy and prayer and ferrets us out in
our sorrow in our little town, you must know how much less lonely we
are because of it. It surely shows us that a sacrifice such as my dear
husband made is acknowledged and lauded by the entire world.
“I am, oh! so proud of him, so comforted to know I was wife to a man so
imbued with the principles of right and justice that he counted no
sacrifice, not even his life, too great to offer in the cause. Not for
anything would I ask him back or rob him of the glory of such a death.
Yet our little home is sad indeed, with its light and life taken away.
“The good you have done before and during the war must be a very great
source of gratification for you, and I trust you may be spared for many
years to stretch out your helping hand to the sorrowing and make us
better for having known you.
With deepest gratitude,”
“ Commander Evangeline Booth:
“I have just seen your picture in the November _Pictorial Review_ and I
do so greatly admire your splendid character and the great work you are
doing.
“I want to thank you for the message of Christian love and sympathy you
sent to me upon the death of my son in July, aeroplane accident in
England.
“Without the Christian’s faith and the blessed hope of the Gospel we
would despair indeed. A long time ago I learned to pray Thy will be
done for my son—and I have tested the promises and I have found them
true.
“May the Lord bless you abundantly in your own heart and in your world
wide influence and the splendid Salvation Army.”
“ Dear Friends:
“Words fall far short in expressing our deep appreciation of your
comforting words of condolence and sympathy. Will you accept as a small
token of love the enclosed appreciation written by Professor ————- of
the Oberlin College, and a quotation from a letter written August 25th
by our soldier boy, and found among his effects to be opened only in
case of his death, and forwarded to his mother?
I am
Yours truly,”
Enclosure:
“November 16, 1918.
“If by any chance this letter should be given to you, as something
coming directly from my heart; you, who are my mother, need have no
fear or regret for the personality destined not to come back to you.
“A mother and father, whose noble ideals they firmly fixed in two sons
should rather experience a deep sense of pride that the young chap of
nearly twenty-one years does not come back to them; for, though he was
fond of living, he was also prepared to die with a faith as sound and
steadfast as that of the little children whom the Master took in His
arms.
“And more than that, the body you gave to me so sweet and pure and
strong, though misused at times, has been returned to God as pure and
undefiled as when you gave it to me. I think there is nothing that
should please you more than that.
“In My Father’s House are many mansions,
I go to prepare a place for you;
If it were not so, I would have told you.
“Your Baby boy,”
(Signed) Paul.
Chatereaux, France.
August, 1918.
N. B.—Written on back of the envelope:
“To be opened only in case of accident.”
“ Commander Evangeline Booth:
“Permit me to express through you my deep appreciation of the consoling
message from the Salvation Army on the loss of my brother, Clement, in
France. I am indeed grateful for this last thought from an organization
which did so much to meet his living needs and to lessen the hardships
of his service in France. I shall always feel a personal debt to those
of you who seemed so near to him at the end.”
“Miss Evangeline Booth:
“I was greatly touched by the card of sympathy sent me in your name on
the occasion of my great sorrow—and my equally great glory. The death
of a husband for the great cause of humanity is a martyrdom that any
soldier’s wife, even in her deep grief, is proud to share.
“Thanking you for your helpful message,”
“Miss Evangeline Booth:
“Of the many cards of condolence received by our family upon the death
of my dear brother, none touched us more deeply than the one sent by
you.
“We do indeed appreciate your thoughtfulness in sending words of
comfort to people who are utter strangers to you.
“Accept again, the gratitude of my parents as well as the other members
of our family, including myself.
“May our Heavenly Father bless you all and glorify your good works.”
Miss Evangeline Booth,
Commander of the Salvation Army, New York City,
N. Y.
Dear Miss Booth:
I beg of you to pardon me for writing you this letter, but I feel that
I must. On the 17th day of March I received a letter from my boy in
France, and it reads as follows:
“Somewhere in France, Jan. 15, 1918.
“My Dear Mother:
“I must write you a few lines to tell you that you must not worry about
me even though it is some time since I wrote you. We don’t have much
time to ourselves out here. I have just come out of the trenches, and
now it is mud, mud, mud, up to one’s knees. I often think of the
fireplace at home these cold nights, but, mother, I must tell you that
I don’t know what we boys would do if it was not for the Salvation
Army. The women, they are just like mothers to the boys. God help the
ones that say anything but good about the Army! Those women certainly
have courage, to come right out in the trenches with coffee and cocoa,
_etc_., and they are so kind and good. Mother, I want you to write to
Miss Booth and thank her for me for her splendid work out here. When I
come home I shall exchange the U. S. uniform for the S.A. uniform, and
I know, ma, that you will not object. Well, the Germans have been
raining shells to-day, but we were unharmed. I passed by an old shack
of a building—a poor woman sat there with a baby, lulling it to sleep,
when a shell came down and the poor souls had passed from this earthly
hell to their heavenly reward. Only God knows the conditions out here;
it is horrible. Well, I must close now, and don’t worry, mother, I will
be home some day.
“Your loving son,”
Well, Miss Booth, I got word three weeks ago that Joseph had been
killed in action. I am heart-broken, but I suppose it was God’s will.
Poor boy! He has his uniform exchanged for a white robe. I am all alone
now, as he was my only boy and only child. Again I beg of you to pardon
me for sending you this letter.
December 10, 1917.
Commander Evangeline C. Booth, New York City.
My Dear Commander:
I have just read in the New York papers of your purpose and plan to
raise a million dollars for your Salvation Army work carried on in the
interests of the soldiers at home and abroad, and I cannot refrain from
writing to you to express my deep interest, and also the hope that you
may be successful in raising this fund, because I know that it will be
so well administered.
From all that I have heard of the Salvation Army work in connection
with the soldiers carried on under your direction, I think it is simply
wonderful, and if there is any service that I can render you or the
Army, I should be exceedingly pleased.
I have read “Souls in Khaki,” and I wish that everyone might read it,
for could they do so, your million-dollar fund would be easily raised.
With ever-increasing interest in the Salvation Army, I am, Cordially
yours,
(Signed) J. Wilbur Chapman.
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the U.S.A.
Salvation Army Is the Most Popular Organization in France.
Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman of the War Recreation Commission, on his
return from a tour of investigation into activities of the relief
organizations in France, gave out the following:
“Somewhat to my surprise I found the Salvation Army probably the most
popular organization in France with the troops. It has not undertaken
the comprehensive program which the Y.M.C.A. has laid out for itself;
that is, it is operating in three or four divisions, while the Y. M. C.
A. is aiming to cover every unit of troops.
“But its simple, homely, unadorned service seems to have touched the
hearts of our men. The aim of the organization is, if possible, to put
a worker and his wife in a canteen or a centre. The women spend their
time making doughnuts and pies, and sew on buttons. The men make
themselves generally useful in any way which their service can be
applied.
“I saw such placed in dugouts way up at the front, where the German
shells screamed over our heads with a sound not unlike a freight train
crossing a bridge. Down in their dugouts the Salvation Army folks
imperturbably handed out doughnuts and dished out the ‘drink.’”
War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities, Washington
45, Avenue Montaigne, Paris.
Commander Evangeline Booth, Apr. 8, 1919.
Salvation Army, New York City.
My Dear Commander Booth:
The work of the Salvation Army with the armed forces of the United
States does not need any word of commendation from me. Perhaps I may be
permitted to say, however, that as a representative of the War and Navy
Departments I have been closely in touch with it from its inception,
both in Europe and in the United States. I do not believe there is a
doughboy anywhere who does not speak of it with enthusiasm and
affection. Its remarkable success has been due solely to the unselfish
spirit of service which has underlain it. Nothing has been too humble
or too lowly for the Salvation Army representative to do for the
soldier. Without ostentation, without advertising, without any emphasis
upon auspices or organization, your people have met the men of the Army
as friends and companions-in-arms, and the soldiers, particularly those
of the American Expeditionary Force, will never forget what you have
done.
Faithfully yours,
(Signed) Raymond B. Fosdick.
From Honorable Arthur Stanley,
Chairman British Red Cross Society.
British Red Cross Society
Joint War Committee
83 Pall Mall, London, S. W.,
December 22, 1917.
General Bramwell Booth.
Dear General Booth:
I enclose formal receipt for the cheque, value £2000, which was handed
to me by your representative. I note that it is a contribution from the
Salvation Army to the Joint Funds to provide a new Salvation Army Motor
Ambulance Unit on the same conditions as before.
I cannot sufficiently thank you and the Salvation Army for this very
generous donation.
I am indeed glad to know that you are providing another twenty drivers
for service with our Ambulance Fleet in France. This is most welcome
news, as whenever Salvation Army men are helping we hear nothing but
good reports of their work. Sir Ernest Clarke tells me that your
Ambulance Sections are quite the best of any in our service, and the
more Salvation Army men you can send him, the better he will be
pleased. I would again take this opportunity of congratulating you,
which I do with all my heart, upon the splendid record of your Army.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) Arthur Stanley.
Extract from Judge Ben Lindsey’s picture of the Salvation Army at the
Front:
“A good expression for American enthusiasm is: ’I am crazy about’—this,
or that, or the other thing that excites our admiration. Well, ’I am
crazy about the Salvation Army’—the Salvation Army as I saw it and
mingled with it and the doughboys in the trenches. And when I happened
to be passing through Chicago to-day and saw an appeal in the _Tribune_
for the Salvation Army, I remembered what our boys so often shouted out
to me as I passed them in the trenches and back of the lines: ’Judge,
when you get back home tell the folks not to forget the Salvation Army.
They’re the real thing.’
“And I know they are the real thing. I have shared with the boys the
doughnuts and chocolate and coffee that seemed to be so much better
than any other doughnuts or coffee or chocolate I have ever tasted
before. And when it seemed so wonderful to me after just a mild sort of
experience down a shell-swept road, through the damp and cold of a
French winter day, what must it be to those boys after trench raids or
red-hot scraps down rain-soaked trenches under the wet mists of No
Man’s Land?... Listen to some of the stories the boys told me: ’You
see, Judge, the good old Salvation Army is the real thing. They don’t
put on no airs. There ain’t no flub-dub about them and you don’t see
their mugs in the fancy magazines much. Why, you never would see one of
them in Paris around the hotels. You’d never know they existed, Judge,
unless you came right up here to the front lines as near as the Colonel
will let you!’
“And one enthusiastic urchin said: ’Why, Judge, after the battle
yesterday, we couldn’t get those women out of the village till they’d
seen every fellow had at least a dozen fried cakes and all the coffee
or chocolate he could pile in. We just had to drag ’em out—for the boys
love ’em too much to lose ’em—we weren’t going to take no chances—not
much— for our Salvation ladies!’”
Harry Lauder’s Endorsement.
In speaking of the Salvation Army’s work before the Rotary Club of San
Francisco, Harry Lauder said:
“There is no organization in Europe doing more for the troops than the
Salvation Army, and the devotion of its officers has caused the
Salvation Army to be revered by the soldiers.”
Mr. Otto Kahn, one of America’s most prominent bankers, upon his return
to this country after a tour through the American lines in France,
writes, among other things:
“I should particularly consider myself remiss if I did not refer with
sincere admiration to the devoted, sympathetic, and most efficient work
of the Salvation Army, which, though limited in its activities to a few
sectors only, has won the warm and affectionate regard of those of our
troops with whom it has been in contact.”
Mr. David Lawrence, special Washington correspondent of the _New York
Evening Post_ and other influential papers, in an article in which he
comments on the work of all the relief agencies, says of the Salvation
Army in France:
“Curiously enough the Salvation Army is spoken of in all official
reports as the organization most popular with the troops. Its
organization is the smallest of all four. Its service is simple and
unadorned. It specializes on doughnuts and pie, which it gives away
free whenever the ingredients of the manufacture of those articles are
at hand.
“_The policy of the organization_ is to place a worker and his wife, if
possible, with a unit of troops. The woman makes doughnuts and sews on
buttons, while the man helps the soldiers in any way he can.
“_The success of the Salvation Army_ is attributed by commanding
officers to the fact that the workers know how to mix naturally. _In
other cases there had been sometimes an air of condescension not unlike
that of the professional settlement house worker_.”
In a recent issue of the _Saturday Evening Post_, Mr. Irvin Cobb, who
has just returned from France, has this to say of the Salvation Army:
“Right here seems a good-enough place for me to slip in a few words of
approbation for the work which another organization has accomplished in
France since we put our men into the field. Nobody asked me to speak in
its favor because, so far as I can find out, it has no publicity
department. I am referring to the Salvation Army. May it live forever
for the service which, without price and without any boasting on the
part of its personnel, it is rendering to our boys in France!
“A good many of us who hadn’t enough religion, and a good many more of
us who, mayhap, had too much religion, looked rather contemptuously
upon the methods of the Salvationists. Some have gone so far as to
intimate that the Salvation Army was vulgar in its methods and lacking
in dignity and even in reverence. Some have intimated that converting a
sinner to the tap of a bass drum or the tinkle of a tambourine was an
improper process altogether. Never again, though, shall I hear the
blare of the cornet as it cuts into the chorus of hallelujah whoops,
where a ring of blue-bonneted women and blue-capped men stand exhorting
on a city street-corner under the gaslights, without recalling what
some of their enrolled brethren—and sisters—have done, and are doing,
in Europe!
“The American Salvation Army in France is small, but, believe me, it is
powerfully busy! Its war delegation came over without any fanfare of
the trumpets of publicity. It has no paid press agents here and no
impressive headquarters. There are no well-known names, other than the
names of its executive heads, on its rosters or on its advisory boards.
None of its members are housed at an expensive hotel and none of them
have handsome automobiles in which to travel about from place to place.
No campaigns to raise nation-wide millions of dollars for the cost of
its ministrations overseas were ever held at home. I imagine it is the
pennies of the poor that mainly fill its war chest. I imagine, too,
that sometimes its finances are an uncertain quantity. Incidentally, I
am assured that not one of its male workers here is of draft age unless
he holds exemption papers to prove his physical unfitness for military
service. The Salvationists are taking care to purge themselves of any
suspicion that potential slackers have joined their ranks in order to
avoid the possibility of having to perform duties in khaki.
“Among officers, as well as among enlisted men, one occasionally hears
criticism—which may or may not be based on a fair judgment—for certain
branches of certain activities of certain organizations. But I have yet
to meet any soldier, whether a brigadier or a private, who, if he spoke
at all of the Salvation Army, did not speak in terms of fervent
gratitude for the aid that the Salvationists are rendering so
unostentatiously and yet so very effectively. Let a sizable body of
troops move from one station to another, and hard on its heels there
came a squad of men and women of the Salvation Army. An army truck may
bring them, or it may be they have a battered jitney to move them and
their scanty outfits. Usually they do not ask for help from anyone in
reaching their destinations. They find lodgment in a wrecked shell of a
house or in the corner of a barn. By main force and awkwardness they
set up their equipment, and very soon the word has spread among the
troops that at such and such a place the Salvation Army is serving free
hot drinks and free doughnuts and free pies. It specializes in
doughnuts—the Salvation Army in the field does—the real old-fashioned
home-made ones that taste of home to a homesick soldier boy!
“I did not see this, but one of my associates did. He saw it last
winter in a dismal place on the Toul sector. A file of our troops were
finishing a long hike through rain and snow over roads knee-deep in
half-thawed icy slush. Cold and wet and miserable they came tramping
into a cheerless, half-empty town within sound and range of the German
guns. They found a reception committee awaiting them there—in the
person of two Salvation Army lassies and a Salvation Army Captain. The
women had a fire going in the dilapidated oven of a vanished villager’s
kitchen. One of them was rolling out the batter on a plank, with an old
wine-bottle for a rolling pin, and using the top of a tin can to cut
the dough into circular strips; the other woman was cooking the
doughnuts, and as fast as they were cooked the man served them out,
spitting hot, to hungry, wet boys clamoring about the door, and nobody
was asked to pay a cent!
“At the risk of giving mortal affront to ultradoctrinal practitioners
of applied theology, I am firmly committed to the belief that by the
grace and the grease of those doughnuts those three humble benefactors
that day strengthened their right to a place in the Heavenly Kingdom.”
My Dear Colonel Jenkins:
I take pleasure in sending you a copy of my report as Commissioner to
France, in which I made reference to the work of the Salvation Army
with our American Expeditionary Forces.
I cannot recall ever hearing the slightest criticism of the work of the
Salvation Army, but I heard many words of enthusiastic appreciation on
the part not only of the Generals and officers but of the soldiers.
I saw many evidences showing that the unselfish, sometimes reckless,
abandon of your workers had a great effect upon our men.
I am sure that the Salvation Army also stands in high respect for its
religious influence upon the men.
It was pleasant still further to hear such words of appreciation as I
did from General Duncan regarding the work of Chaplain Allan, the
divisional chaplain of General Duncan’s unit. He has evidently risen to
his work in a splendid way. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity
of rendering this testimony to you.
Faithfully yours,
Charles S. MacFarland,
General Secretary.
The _New York Globe_ printed the following:
Huns Don’t Stop Salvation Army. Meeting Held in Deep Dugout Under
Ruined Village—Mandolin Supplants the Organ.
By Herbert Corey.
Just behind the Somme front, May 31.—Somewhere in the tangle of smashed
walls there was a steely jingle. At first the sound was hard to
identify, so odd are acoustics in this which was once a little town.
There were stub ends of walls here and there—bare, raw snags of walls
sticking up—and now and then a rooftree tilted pathetically against a
ruin, or a pile of dusty masonry that had been a house. A little path
ran through this tangle, and under an arched gateway that by a miracle
remained standing and down the steps of a dugout. The jingling sound
became recognizable. Some one was trying to play on a mandolin:
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul.”
It was grotesque and laughable. The grand old hymn refused its cadences
to this instrument of a tune-loving bourgeoise. It seemed to stand
aloof and unconquered. This is a hymn for the swelling notes of an
organ or for the great harmonies of a choir. It was not made to be
debased by association with this caterwauling wood and wire, this
sounding board for barbershop chords, this accomplice of sick lovers
leaning on village fences. Then there came a voice:
“By gollies, brother, you’re getting it! I actually believe you’re
getting it, brother. We’ll have a swell meeting to-night.”
I went down the steps into the Salvation Army man’s dugout. A large
soldier, cigarette depending from his lower lip, unshaven, tin hat
tipped on the back of his head, was picking away at the wires of the
mandolin with fingers that seemed as thick and yellow as ears of corn.
As I came in he stated profanely, that these dam’ things were not made
to pick out condemn’ hymn tunes on. The Salvation Army man encouraged
him:
“You keep on, brother,” said he, “and we’ll have a fine meeting for the
Brigadier when he comes in to-night.”
Taking His Chances.
Another boy was sitting there, his head rather low. The mandolin player
indicated him with a jerk. “He got all roughed up last night,” said he.
“We found a bottle of some sweet stuff these Frogs left in the house
where we’re billeted. Tasted a good deal like syrup. But it sure put
Bull out.”
Bull turned a pair of inflamed eyes on the musician.
“You keep on a-talkin’, and I’ll hang somep’n on your eye,” said Bull,
hoarsely.
Then he replaced his head in his hands. The Salvation Army man laughed
at the interlude and then returned to the player.
“See,” said he, “it goes like this——” He hummed the wonderful old hymn.
The floor of the dugout was covered with straw. The stairs which led to
it were wide, so that at certain hours the sun shone in and dried out
the walls. There were few slugs crawling slimily on the walls of the
Salvation Army’s place. Rats were there, of course, and bugs of sorts,
but few slugs. On the whole it was considered a good dugout, because of
these things. The roof was not a strong one, it seemed to me. A
77-shell would go through it like a knife through cheese. I said so to
the Salvation Army man.
“Aw, brother,” said he. “We’ve got to take our chances along with the
rest.”
At the foot of the stairs was a table on which were the few things the
Salvation Army man had to sell, up here under the guns. There were some
figs and a handful of black licorice drops and a few nuts. Boys kept
coming in and demanding cookies. Cookies there were none, but there was
hope ahead. If the Brigadier managed to get in to-night with the fliv,
there might be cookies.
No Money, But Good Cheer.
“Just our luck,” said some morose doughboy, “if a shell hit the fliv.
It’s a hell of a road——”
“No shell has hit it yet, brother,” said the Salvation Army man,
cheerily.
Fifteen dollars would have bought everything he had in stock. One could
have carried away the whole stock in the pockets of an army overcoat.
The Salvation Army has no money, you know. It is hard to buy supplies
for canteens over here, unless a pocket filled with money is doing the
buying. The Salvation Army must pick up its stuff where it can get it.
Yesterday there had been sardines and shaving soap and tin watches.
To-day there were only figs and licorice drops and nuts.
“But if the Brigadier gets in,” said the Salvation Army man, “there
will be something sweet to eat. And we’ll have a little meeting of song
and praise, brother—just to thank God for the chance he has given us to
help.”
Here there is no one else to serve the boys. Other organizations have
more money and more men, but for some reason they have not seen fit to
come to this which was once a town. Shells fall into it from six
directions all day and all night long. Now and then it is gassed. A few
kilometres away is the German line. One reaches town over a road which
is nightly torn to pieces by high explosives. No one comes here
voluntarily, and no one stays willingly—except the Salvation Army man.
He’s here for keeps.
Men come down into his little dugout to play checkers and dominoes and
buy sweet things to eat. He is here to help them spiritually as well as
physically and they know it, and yet they do not hear him. He talks to
them just as they talk to each other, except that he does not swear and
he does not tell stories that have too much of a tang. He never
obtrudes his religion on them. Just once in a while—on the nights the
Brigadier gets in—there is a little song and praise meeting. They thank
God for the chance they have to help.
That night the Brigadier got in with his cookies and chocolates and his
message that salvation is free. Perhaps a dozen men sat around
uncomfortably in the little dugout and listened to him. The man of the
mandolin had refused at the last moment. He said he would be dam’ if he
could play a hymn tune on that thing. But the old hymn quavered
cheerily out of the little dugout into the shell-torn night. The husky
voices of the Brigadier and the Ensign and Holy Joe carried it on,
while the little audience sat mute.
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Then there was a little prayer and a few straight, cordial words from
the Brigadier and then, somewhere in that perilous night outside,
“taps” sounded and the men were off to bed. They had no word of thanks
as they shook hands on parting. They did not speak to each other as
they picked their way along the path through the ruins. But when they
reached the street some one said very profanely and very earnestly:
“I can lick any man’s son who says they ain’t all right.”
“I have just received your letter of the 30th of July, and it has
cheered my heart to know you take an interest in a poor Belgian
prisoner of war.
“Since I wrote to you last we have been changed to another camp; the
one we are now in is quite a nice camp, with lots of flowers, and we
are allowed more freedom, but it is very bad regarding food. We have so
very little to eat, it is a pity we can’t eat flowers! We rise up
hungry and go to bed hungry, and all day long we are trying to still
the craving for food. So you will understand the longing there is in
our hearts to once again be free—to be able to go to work and earn our
daily bread! But the one great comfort that I find is since I learned
to know Jesus as my Saviour and Friend I can better endure the trials
and even rejoice that I am called to suffer for His sake, and while
around me I see many who are in despair—some even cursing God for all
the misery in which we are surrounded, some trying to be brave, some
giving up altogether—yet to a number of us has come the Gospel message,
brought by the Salvation Army, and I am so glad that I, for one,
listened and surrendered my life to this Jesus! Now I have real peace,
and He walks with me and gives me grace to conquer the evil.
“When I lived in Belgium I was very worldly and sinful—I lived for
pleasure and drink and sin. I did not then know of One who said, ’Come
unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you
rest.’ I did not know anything about living a Christian life, but now
it is all changed and I am so thankful! Salvation Army officers visit
us and bring words of cheer and blessing and comfort. You will be glad
to know that I have applied to our Commissioner to become a Salvation
Army officer when the war is over. I want to go to my poor little
stricken country and tell my people of this wonderful Saviour that can
save from all sin!
“On behalf of my comrades and myself, I want to thank the American
nation for all they have done, and are still doing, for my people. May
God bless you all for it, and may He grant that before long there will
be peace on earth!
“I remain, faithfully yours,
“ Remy Meersman.”
The “Stars and Stripes” Speaks from France for The Salvation Army.
A copy of the “Stars and Stripes,” the official publication of the
American Expeditionary Forces published in Prance by the American
soldiers themselves, just received in Chicago, contains the following:
“Perhaps in the old days when war and your home town seemed as far
apart as Paris, France, and Paris, Ill., you were a superior person who
used to snicker when you passed a street corner where a small Salvation
Army band was holding forth. Perhaps—Heaven forgive you—you even
sneered a little when you heard the bespectacled sister in the
poke-bonnet bang her tambourine and raise a shrill voice to the strains
of ’Oh death, where is thy sting-a-ling.’ Probably—unless you yourself
had known the bitterness of one who finds himself alone, hungry and
homeless in a big city—you did not know much about the Salvation Army.
Well, we are all homeless over here and every American soldier will
take back with him a new affection and a new respect for the Salvation
Army. Many will carry with them the memories of a cheering word and a
friendly cruller received in one of the huts nearest of all to the
trenches. There the old slogan of ‘Soup and Salvation’ has given way to
‘Pies and Piety.’ It might be ‘Doughnuts and Doughboys.’ These huts
pitched within the shock of the German guns, are ramshackle and bare
and few, for no organization can grow rich on the pennies and nickels
that are tossed into the tambourines at the street-corners of the
world. But they are doing a work that the soldiers themselves will
never forget, and it is an especial pleasure to say so here, because
the Salvation Army, being much too simple and old-fashioned to know the
uses of advertisement, have never asked us to. You, however, can
testify for them. Perhaps you do in your letters home. And surely when
you are back there and you pass once more a ‘meeting’ at the curb, you
will not snicker. You will tarry awhile—and take off your hat.”
We have received a letter from Mr. Lewis Strauss, Secretary to Mr.
Herbert Hoover, who has just returned from France, and he says that Mr.
Hoover’s time while in Europe was spent almost wholly in London and
Paris, and that he had no opportunity for observing our War Relief Work
at the front. The concluding paragraph of the letter, however, is as
follows:
“Mr. Hoover has frequently heard the most complimentary reports of the
invaluable work which your organization is performing in invariably the
most perilous localities, and he is filled with admiration for those
who are conducting it at the front.”
The Chicago Tribune (May 17, 1918), Quoting from the Above, also Speaks
Editorially.
The acid test of any service done for our soldiers in France is the
value the men themselves place upon it. No matter how excellent our
intentions, we cannot be satisfied with the result if the soldiers are
not satisfied. Without suggesting any invidious distinctions among
organizations that are working at the front, it is nevertheless a
pleasure to record that the Salvation Army stands very high in the
regard of American soldiers.
The evidence of the Salvation Army’s excellent work comes from many
sources.
Appendix.
A Few Facts about the Salvation Army
It has been truly said that within four days after the German Army
entered Belgium, another Army entered also—the Salvation Army! One came
to destroy, the other to relieve distress and minister to the wounded
and dying.
The British Salvation Army furnished a number of Red Cross Ambulances,
manned by Salvationists when the Red Cross was in great need of such.
When these arrived in France and people first saw the big cars with the
“Salvation Army” label it attracted a good deal of attention. The
drivers wore the Red Cross uniform, and were under its military rules,
but wore on their caps the red band with the words, “Salvation Army.”
There is a story of a young officer in sportive mood who left a group
of his companions and stepped out into the street to stop one of these
ambulances:
“Hello! Salvation Army!” he cried. “Are you taking those men to
heaven?”
Amid the derisive laughter of the officers on the sidewalk the
Salvationist replied pleasantly:
“I cannot say I am taking them to heaven, but I certainly am taking
them away from the other place.”
One of the good British Salvationists wrote of meeting our American
boys in England. He said:
“Oh, these American soldiers! One meets them in twos and threes, all
over the city, everlastingly asking questions, by word of mouth and by
wide-open trustful eyes, and they make a bee-line for the Salvation
Army uniform on sight. I passed a company of them on the march across
London, from one railroad station to another, the other, day. They were
obviously interested in the sights of the city streets as they passed
through at noon, but as they drew nearer one of the boys caught sight
of the red band around my cap among the hate crowning the sidewalk
crowd. My! but that one man’s interest swept over the hundred odd men!
Like the flame of a prairie fire, it went with a zip! They all knew at
once! They had no eyes for the crowd any more; they did not stare at
the façade of the railway terminus which they were passing; they saw
nothing of the famous ‘London Stone’ set in the wall behind its grid on
their right hand. What they saw was a Salvation Army man in all his
familiar war-paint, and it was a sight for sore eyes! Here was
something they could understand! This was an American institution, a
tried, proved and necessary part of the life of any community. All this
and much more those wide-open eyes told me. It was as good to them as
if I was stuck all over with stars and stripes. I belonged—that’s
it—belonged to them, and so they took off the veil and showed their
hearts and smiled their good glad greeting.
“So I smiled and that first file of four beamed seraphic. Two at least
were of Scandinavian stock, but how should that make any difference?
Again and again I noticed their counterpart in the column which
followed.... It was all the same; file upon file those faces spread out
in eager particular greeting; those eyes, one and all, sought mine
expecting the smile I so gladly gave. And then when the last was past
and I gazed upon their swaying forms from the rear I wondered why my
eyes were moist and something had gone wrong with my swallowing
apparatus. Great boys! Bonny boys!”
The Salvation Army was founded July 5, 1865, as a Christian Mission in
East London by the Reverend William Booth, and its first Headquarters
opened in Whitechapel Road, London. Three years later work was begun in
Scotland.
In 1877 the name of the Christian Mission was altered to the Salvation
Army, and the Reverend William Booth assumed the title of General.
December 29, 1879, the first number of the official organ, “The War
Cry,” was issued and the first brass band formed at Consett.
In 1880 the first Training School was opened at Hackney, London, and
the first contingent of the Salvation Army officers landed in the
United States. The next year the Salvation Army entered Australia, and
was extended to France. 1882 saw Switzerland, Sweden, India and Canada
receiving their first contingent of Salvation Army officers. A London
Orphan Asylum was acquired and converted into Congress Hall, which,
with its large Auditorium, with a seating capacity of five thousand,
still remains the Mammoth International Training School for Salvation
Army officers, for missionary and home fields all over the world. The
first Prison-Gate Home was opened in London in this same year.
The Army commenced in South Africa, New Zealand and Iceland in 1883.
In 1886 work was begun in Germany and the late General visited France,
the United States and Canada. The First International Congress was held
in London in that year.
The British Slum work was inaugurated in 1887, and Officers sent to
Italy, Holland, Denmark, Zululand, and among the Kaffirs and
Hottentots. The next year the Army extended to Norway, Argentine
Republic, Finland and Belgium, and the next ten years saw work extended
in succession to Uruguay, West Indies, Java, Japan, British Guiana,
Panama and Korea, and work commenced among the Lepers.
The growing confidence of the great of the earth was manifested by the
honors that were conferred upon General Booth from time to time. In
1898 he opened the American Senate with prayer. In 1904 King Edward
received him at Buckingham Palace, the freedom of the City of London
and the City of Kirkcaldy were conferred upon him, as well as the
degree of D. C. L. by Oxford, during 1905. The Kings of Denmark,
Norway, the Queen of Sweden, and the Emperor of Japan were among those
who received him in private audience.
On August 20, 1912, General William Booth laid down his sword.
He lay in state in Congress Hall, London, where the number of visitors
who looked upon his remains ran into the hundreds of thousands.
His son, William Bramwell Booth, the Chief of the Staff, by the
appointment of the late General, succeeded to the office and came to
the position with a wealth of affection and confidence on the part of
the people of the nations such as few men know.
Salvation Army War Activities.
77 Motor ambulances manned by Salvationists.
87 Hotels for use of Soldiers and Sailors.
107 Buildings in United States placed at disposal of Government for war
relief purposes.
199 Huts at Soldiers’ Camps used for religious and social gatherings
and for dispensing comfort to Soldiers and Sailors.
300 Rest-rooms equipped with papers, magazines, books, _etc_., in
charge of Salvation Army Officers.
1507 Salvation Army officers devote their entire time to religious and
social work among Soldiers and Sailors.
15,000 Beds in hotels close to railway stations and landing points at
seaport cities for protection of Soldiers and Sailors going to and from
the Front.
80,000 Salvation Army officers fighting with Allied Armies.
100,000 Parcels of food and clothing distributed among Soldiers and
Sailors.
100,000 Wounded Soldiers taken from battlefields in Salvation Army
ambulances.
300,000 Soldiers and Sailors daily attend Salvation Army buildings.
$2,000,000 Already spent in war activities.
45 Chaplains serving under Government appointment.
40 Camps, Forts and Navy Yards at which Salvation Army services are
conducted or which are visited by Salvation Army officers.
2184 War Widows assisted (legal and other aid, and visited).
2404 Soldiers’ wives cared for (including medical help).
442 War children under our care.
3378 Soldiers’ remittances forwarded (without charge).
$196,081.05 Amount remitted.
600 Parcels supplied Prisoners of War.
1300 Cables sent for Soldiers.
275 Officers detailed to assist Soldiers’ wives and relatives; number
assisted, 275.
40 Military hospitals visited.
360 Persons visiting hospitals.
147 Boats met.
324,052 Men on board,
35,845 Telegrams sent.
24 Salvationists detailed for this work.
20 Salvationists detailed for this work outside of New York City.
Salvation Army Work in United States of America.
1218 Buildings in use at present.
2953 Missing friends found.
6125 Tons of ice distributed.
12,000 Officers and non-commissioned officers actively employed.
11,650 Accommodations in institutions.
68,000 Children cared for in Rescue Homes and Slum Settlements.
22,161 Women and girls cared for in Rescue Homes.
30,401 Tons of coal distributed.
175,764 Men cared for in Industrial Homes.
342,639 Poor families visited.
399,418 Outings given poor people.
668,250 Converted to Christian life.
984,426 Jobs found for unemployed poor.
1,535,840 Hours spent in active service in slum districts.
6,900,995 Poor people given temporary relief.
40,522,990 Nights’ shelter and beds given to needy poor.
52,674,308 Meals supplied to needy poor. Constituency reached with
appeal for Christian citizenship.
132,608,087 Out-door meeting attendance.
134,412,564 In-door meeting attendance.
National War Board.
Commander Evangeline C. Booth, President.
East.
Peart, Col. William, Chairman.
Reinhardsen, Col. Gustave S., Sec’y and Treas.
Damon, Col. Alexander M.,
Parker, Col. Edward J.,
Jenkins, Lt.-Col. Walter F.,
Stanyon, Lt.-Col. Thomas,
Welte, Brigadier Charles
West
Estill, Commissioner Thos., Chairman
Gauntlett, Col. Sidney,
Brewer, Lt.-Col. Arthur T.,
Eynn, Lt.-Col. John T.,
Dart, Brigadier Wm. J., Sec’y.
France.
Barker, Lt.-Col. William S., Director of War Work.
As indicated in the above list, the National War Board functions in two
distinct territories—East and West—the duty of each being to administer
all War Work in the respective territories. The closest supervision is
given by each War Board over all expenditure of money and no scheme is
sanctioned until the judgment of the Board is carried concerning the
usefulness of the project and the sound financial proposals associated
therewith. After any plan is initiated, the Board is still responsible
for the supervision of the work, and for the Eastern department Colonel
Edward J. Parker is the Board’s representative in all such matters and
Lieut-Colonel Arthur T. Brewer fills a similar office in the Western
department. Each section of the National Board takes responsibility in
connection with the overseas work, under the presidency of Commander
Evangeline C. Booth for the raising, equipping and sending of
thoroughly suitable people in proper proportion. Joint councils are
occasionally necessary, when it is customary for proper representatives
of each section of the Board to meet together.
The National Board is greatly strengthened through the adding to its
special councils all of the Provincial Officers of the country.