BOOKS.
THE SALVATION ARMY AND THE PUBLIC.* THE Salvation Army is a public institution, and as such is not above criticism. The work before us is a severe indictment of the Army and its methods. In 1890, on the publication of In Darkest England, the late Professor Huxley did his beet to persuade the public to withhold their support from the visionary schemes of social regeneration which General Booth propounded in that now almost forgotten volume. Religious zeal, the Professor argued, was no guarantee of the Army's ability to cope with a difficult economic problem, and he deprecated any action on the part of the public that would allow the Army to impose its " Corybantic Christianity" on applicants for relief merely because they were the victims of vice or misfortune. He reminded us, and Mr. Manson now recalls the passage to our remembrance, of the analogy of the Franciscans, who within thirty years of the death of St. Francis bad become "one of the most powerful, wealthy, and worldly corporations in Christendom, with their fingers in every sink of political and social corruption, if so be profit for the order could be fished out of it." And "who is to say," asked Huxley in 1890, "that the Salvation Army, in the year 1920, shall not be a replica of what the Franciscan order bad become in the year 1260?" That this prophecy is in course of being fulfilled is the audacious proposition which Mr. Manson has set himself to prove. It would be premature to pass sentence when only one side of the controversy has been stated. Mr. Manson has, however, achieved a first success by the forcible yet temperate manner in which he has presented his case. His book, we are bound to acknowledge, deserves careful and respectful consideration.
The indictment is serious enough ; but as it seems to us, it is levelled rather against the public for its credulous and uncritical attitude towards the pretensions of the Army than against the Army itself. Mr. Manson's account presents to us a picture of the leaders of the movement, starting with the slender equipment of a narrow and illiberal creed, such as, When set out in plain terms, would shock the conscience and religious sense of the average educated layman. After some period of failure the constitution and status of the sect were altered, notoriety was achieved, a certain measure of success was obtained among the very limited section of the community to whom extreme revivalist excitement is acceptable. The limits of expansion on these lines were soon reached, and some new inspiration was required. Thereupon those responsible for the policy of the Army, with a strange mixture of ecstatic enthusiasm, vanity, and ambition, proclaimed themselves to be divinely commissioned to grapple with economic problems for which the Army has no special qualifications.
The sincerity and devotion of the rank-and-file of the propa- gandists are not questioned. The strange thing is the effect of these pretensions on the general public. The language used in respect of their newly assumed task was borrowed from the unmeasured and exaggerated imagery characteristic of
" The Salvation Army and the Pubic: 0 Relifieus, Social,and Financial Study. By John Manson. London : G. Mantledge and Sciill. Les.)
religious revivalism, and, notwithstanding Professor Huxley's protest, this has proved unexpeotedly convincing to the large' public which in the main is unaccustomed to intercourse with fanaticism. The favourable reception of their social scheme has added to the intoxication of the hour ; and scruples, moral and financial, have been swept aside by the overmastering belief in a mission, and in the desire for power,—not to be used for selfish purposes, but for the sake of the opportunity of making philanthropic experiments conceived in a spirit of unwarrantable optimism ; and the public, Mr. Manson complains, will have it so.
Mr. Manson supports his case, of which the above is a brief epitome, by a mass of documents and proofs. Occasionally, perhaps, he is unjust, and too little inclined to make allowance for the considerations which, in the eyes of the religious fanatic, justify questionable means to attain ends which are sanctified by visions of enthusiastic rapture. He comes most nearly to being convincing when be is criticising the whole structure quite apart from the motives of the principal actors.
In his opening paragraphs Mr. Manson points out that the general public takes no interest in the finance and constitution of the ordinary self-governing religious community. These concern its own membership alone. The Salvation Army, though, initially and still, it does not differ from these, derives most of its support from a public which has no sympathy with its theological tenets, and which, though entitled by reason of its financial aid so to do, exercises no supervision over its finance and management. Mr. Manson gives his explanation of how this situation has arieen.
The benevolent public, he is probably right in thinking, is not a very critical body. To it the Salvation Army is not a religious community, but a philanthropic insti- tution, promising its supporters large amelioration of the lot of the poor. This, however, is not the view of the Army itself, and Mr. Manson in dwelling on this is only emphasising a fact which is honourable to the Army,— namely, the sincerity and tenacity with which it holds to its own peculiar religious faith. When launching his "Darkest England" scheme, for which he asked the public to provide £100,000 down and a yearly endowment of £30,000, General Booth gave an undertaking that the doctrines of the Salvation Army were not to be forced on the beneficiaries of the "Social Scheme." This, Mr. Manson points out, was an engagement, made no doubt in all good faith, that neither the General's own opinions nor the fervour of his Army entitled him to give. It is made abundantly clear elsewhere that the facts are much more accurately stated in the General's declaration : "I must assert in the most unqualified manner that it is primarily and mainly for the sake of saving the soul that I seek the salvation of the body" (quoted by Mr. Manson, p. 193). Colonel Lamb, also, one of the Army's principal officers, declared that he "would not contemplate a colony without religious influences." If by the term "religious influ- ences" we mean the inculcation of reasoned motives of restraint with regard to conduct, the sentence is profoundly true ; but Mr. Manson's complaint is that in this connexion it means the peculiar form of "professing salvation" which is the cardinal doctrine of the Salvationist community. Religious liberty is a subject on which Englishmen are justly sensitive, and Mr. Manson does not question any man's right to exercise his religious convictions in the way that seems good to him. His complaint is that the public does not understand that in supporting the Salvation Army it is endowing a sect of very peculiar tenets, and putting it in a position where, if it is true to its own declared convictions, it must proselytise, and seek (to use an apt phrase of Mr. Manson's) "to subdue men's minds to the fixed idea that nothing in life matters but the Army's particular scheme of salvation." We omit reference to Mr. Manson's description of the psychological problem of conversion. His main contention is, we think, established. The general public, rightly or wrongly, is not prepared to adopt and enforce the Army's interpretation of that phenomenon. When extorted from applicants for assistance, as a condition of promotion and favour, such professions are in danger of becoming a travesty of religion.
That the influence of " profession " is salutary to the in. dividual when the professor is sincere may perhaps be con- ceded; but Mr. Manson's relentless argument seeks to show
how the devotion of such subordinates is used to rear a vast system in which there are many most sinister elements. Regarded as a body of like-minded men uniting for common worship and religious exercise, the Army, Mr. Manson argues, is very limited in number ; and it is suggested that as a religions community it had more than reached its zenith when it was discovered that the popularity of the somewhat eccentric bands of revivalists—who previously, it is said, were very unpopular—was immensely increased when it was given out that the organisation was not only religious, but that it had a scheme for the regeneration of society. It was soon seen that if a few enthusiasts could be collected in any town or district, though they would gain very few adherents to their sect, they would nevertheless get a great deal of material support from careless good-natured people, who without any sympathy for its religious tenets were yet willing to give money to a society which promised to do so much for the regeneration of mankind. Funds so sub- scribed are for the ordinary purposes of the Army, and not for the Social Scheme, which has its separate accounts and organisation at the centre. The next step is that the local band of devoted enthusiasts, with a "field officer" at its head, is provided with barracks and halls and the other paraphernalia of the Army, far in excess, it is alleged, of the require- ments of the Army viewed as a body of worshippers. These barracks and halls are the property of the official head of the Army, and funds for building and acquiring them are largely provided from money advanced to the Army in its capacity of banker, assurance association, and general financier. The local branch of the Army takes possession of the buildings secured by these financial expedients, and agrees to pay a rent-charge. The branches are further called on to pay tithe, tribute, and other subscriptions to the centre ; and all of these charges and the current expenses of the branch have to be met before the unfortunate field officer can draw a penny of salary. The machine, so argues Mr. Manson, is as ingenious a contrivance for exploiting the life-blood of the devotees as can well be imagined; and he recounts some painful instances in which the religious fervour of the simple enthusiast has broken down in the hopeless struggle to feed the machine, and where disillusionment has come of a most pathetic and heart-breaking character.
The central finance largely consists in borrowing money from the public and investing it in the machinery of the Army, which is kept as "a going concern" by the measures above described. The solvency of the system depends partly on the value of the property acquired, but much more, Mr. Manson argues, on the willingness of the public to continue subscriptions, which, he maintains, are now given under a misapprehension. The public is fickle, even in its delusions, and its security is not good; and if the machine ceases to be "a going concern" the assets must be hopelessly depreciated. The appendix, which gives an account of the liquidation of the Salvation Army Building Association, Limited, and the dis- pute of the directors with the General of the Army, is certainly a disquieting document.
The public has chosen to interest itself in the affairs of this originally unimportant religious community, and has promoted it to a position of unprecedented power. It is not fair to the Army to leave it without the check of wholesome and well- informed criticism. The temper of religious enthusiasm does want to be controlled when dealing with more mundane concerns. We have no wish to prejudge the case, but we should like our readers to realise that here is matter which requires their scrutiny. We do not think that the Army's claims as a regenerator of society are to be regarded more or less seriously than those put forward by other charitable bodies which live by advertisement ; but we do see some grounds for thinking that it is being overwhelmed by the weight of its own machinery, which, unless the matter is looked to, may prove to it as dangerous as Frankenstein's monster.
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