THE SALVATION ARMY SLUM DEPARTMENT.
So much has been written on the question of the slums in the past few
years; so many settlements, evening recreation centers, summer
playgrounds, clubs, visiting nurses' associations, and kindergarten
associations have been organized; so much has been done by tenement
house commissions and tenement laws; so many churches have turned from
their original efforts to the slums; that we wonder why so little is
heard of what the Army, the organization supposed especially to
represent the poor, is doing in this direction. To tell the truth, if we
go down into the slums, either those of Deptford, Whitechapel, or of
Westminster, in London; or those of the Jewish, the Italian, the Negro,
or the Irish quarters in New York, or those of the Slav or Jewish
quarters in Chicago, expecting to find there the work of the Army much
in evidence, we shall be disappointed. What slum work is done by the
Army in these densely populated corners is done with love and earnest
hearts, with sacrifice and the best of intentions; but apparently it
does not bear fruit in the same proportion as does the work of the
settlement, whether church settlement or secular, or in the same
proportion as many of the kindergartens, summer playgrounds and evening
recreation centers. Nevertheless, the slum post of the Army is doing
valuable work and should be supported.
A sweeping tenement house reform can do more than any number of
settlements; a settlement can do more than the Army slum post; but
neither the tenement reform nor the settlement does the work that a slum
post does. Probably the work done by other organizations most nearly
allied to that of the Army slum post is that done by the various
organizations of church deaconesses, which have been growing rapidly in
late years, in which women are employed by the churches to visit the
poor in their homes, and nurse the sick, besides other duties. If we
depend or count largely on the Army slum work to reform the slums, we
shall be disappointed in learning that, after years of successful growth
in the Industrial and Social Departments, the Army has but twenty slum
posts in the United States[87], some of these being very small, and that
it has no large number in other countries. Such as it is, the work is
well worth while. But let us examine its origin, present status and the
reason for its relatively small growth.
In the beginning of the Army movement, Mrs. Booth, the late wife of
General Booth, supplemented her husband's work by a personal visitation
of the people in their homes. She proved the utility of this work and
also its place among the works of women. From her early efforts has
sprung the more widely organized department of slum work.
The slum work may be divided into three divisions: visitation work, the
slum nursery, and the maintenance of the slum post. Wearing a humbler
garb, even, than the regular Army uniform, the lassies start out on
their daily tours of visitation. They take care of the sick, and at the
same time, they clean the home and put everything in order. Often they
come upon cases of need and of want, and then they provide the little
necessaries: a sack of coal, a supply of food, or some needed clothing.
They take the children from the worn-out woman and amuse and instruct
them, while the mother does her work; and, wherever they go, although
most plainly dressed, they are clean and neat, and they strive to make
everything else clean and neat.
While this visitation work is going on, another most urgent need is
being supplied by the slum nursery. Here the mother can leave her
children in the morning, when she goes to her work, and find them safely
waiting for her in the evening, clean and happy. A charge of five cents
per day is made to cover the expense of feeding the children. During the
day they are well cared for, the younger ones properly nursed, and the
older ones taught simple little kindergarten games and songs. Sometimes
children are brought here and never called for again, in which case the
Army lassies in charge must find some permanent home for them, but this
does not often happen, as the mothers of the children are usually known
by the Army workers. At the slum nursery in Cincinnati there is also a
free clinic, where sick women and children go for treatment. Two of the
most efficient physicians of the city furnish free aid, and the
medicines necessary are provided.
In addition to the visitation work and the nursery, the maintenance of
the slum post means the keeping of slum quarters and a slum hall. The
"quarters" are the two or more rooms where the lassies live, and they
are located where most can be accomplished in the way of example and
influence. The hall is for the carrying on of slum meetings, for these
are regularly held. In these meetings the roughest crowd of men, women
and children is awed into respect and reverence by the simple slum
lassies with their songs and music. Again, in this little hall, the
children of the neighborhood are gathered in a Sunday School and taught
by the slum officers. It is a most interesting spectacle to watch these
children. Many different nationalities are represented, the dark races
and the light. As children, these nationalities mingle together more
freely than in adult life.
A special aspect of the slum post is the distribution of charitable
relief to the needy. It is specially situated, and has advantages for
this purpose; hence it becomes the distributing depot for bread, soup
and coal in winter, and ice in summer. For instance, from one slum post
in New York during the winter of 1907-8, 2,800 loaves of bread were
given out in one week, and for some months, an average of from 300 to
1,000 loaves, besides an average of two tons of coal per week. Some of
this, naturally, would go to the undeserving, but the slum officers, as
a rule, know the people of their immediate neighborhood, and can
exercise due discretion.
The failure of the Army slum work to increase in the same proportion as
its other branches of the social work, and its non-existence in many
quarters of our cities where it is most needed, is due to two causes.
One is the fact that the Army slum post, more than the Army industrial
home or the Army hotel, is a religious institution, and is continually
advertising and pressing on the public its peculiar doctrines. The slum
officers are imbued with the idea that personal salvation according to
the doctrines of the Army is the all-essential need. They would not be
engaged in this work themselves were it not for the hold these doctrines
have upon them. The slum post holds its regular meetings, exhorting its
hearers to get "saved," in its own original way. At Sunday School, the
children are taught that certain things are wrong and sinful, and these
very things are common-place in their own homes though, possibly some of
them of not much detriment. But, in a community almost entirely Catholic
or Jewish, such aggressive evangelism is not likely to increase the
influence of its advocates. Many settlements have learned with grief,
this very same lesson. Another reason for the lack of success is the
mental calibre of those engaged in the work. However, the devotion and
self-sacrifice of the Army slum sisters is one of the most touching and
sublime elements of the slums, and it is all the more touching when it
is to some extent misdirected and misplaced. To see the tact, patience
and perseverance of these "Slum Angels" as they are often called, is a
divine object lesson in itself, and much of their work is not done in
vain, as many would testify.
A useful experiment is under way at one former slum post, 94 Cherry
Street, New York City. In place of the old building formerly rented by
the Army here and used as a slum post, the Army has built a commodious
six-story building, which it calls a settlement. One floor is given to a
hall and parlor. Two floors are given over to rooms to be used as class,
club and kindergarten rooms. One floor is fitted up with a dining room
and kitchen, and another with a large dormitory and living room, to be
used as a Girls' Home. On the roof, preparations are under way for a
roof garden and play-ground, while washing facilities are provided in
the basement, where poor mothers can bring their clothes and wash them.
Already the New York Kindergarten Association has two kindergartners
busy here. Two sewing classes, averaging thirty-five members, are
organized. Mother's meetings are held, and a regular Army Corps is
organized, consisting of sixty members. This settlement may prove an
auspicious advance of the Army along these lines.
To sum up, the Army Slum Department is doing valuable work in the slums,
tending the sick, exercising and bringing out some of the better traits
of humanity, and offering relief in times of need; but it suffers from
an over-desire to spread its own peculiar doctrines of salvation, and
from the lack of grasping the whole situation which is characteristic of
its workers.
FOOTNOTES:
[87] This number has continued the same for five years.