The Salvation Army, Soical Reform and the Labour Movement, 1885–1910*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
In the past decade a prominent theme in the historiography of nineteenth-century Britain has been the imposition of middle-class habits and attitudes upon the populace by means of new or re-invigorated mechanisms of “social control”. To the apparatus of law enforcement and to the disciplines of the factory and wage labour, historians have added the less overt instruments of social welfare, education, religion, leisure and moral reform. Philanthropists, educators, clergymen and moralizers have all become soldiers in a campaign to uproot the “anti-social” characteristics of the poor and to cement the hegemony of the elite.
The research for this paper was greatly facilitated by the R. T. French Visiting Professorship, which links the University of Rochester, New York, and Worcester College, Oxford. A preliminary version of the paper was presented at a conference on Victorian Outcasts at the Victorian Studies Centre, University of Leicester. I would like to thank Simon Stevenson of Exeter College, Oxford, for research assistance; Lieut.-Col. Cyril Barnes for guidance with the archives in the International Headquarters of the Salvation Army, London; and Clive Fleay, Tina Isaacs, Ellen More, K. O. Morgan, Rosemary Tyler and Martin Wiener for their helpful comments. Finally, for her advice and encouragement, I am indebted to Jennifer Donnelly.
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30 Northampton Daily Echo, 10 and 12 September 1910, cutting in the Gertrude Tuck-well Collection, Trades Union Congress Library.
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37 Cited in Inglis, , Churches, pp. 175–76. See also War Cry, 29 02 1886; Times, 26 07 1882, p. 6 (Mrs Booth speaking at Blackheath).Google Scholar Cf., K. S. Inglis, “English Nonconformity and Social Reform, 1880–1900”, in: Past & Present, No 13 (1958), pp. 83–86;CrossRefGoogle Scholar H. Pelling, “Religion and the Nineteenth-Century British Working Class”, ibid., No 27 (1964), pp. 128–33.
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42 Home Office Papers 45/9802/B5587/1, Public Record Office (hereafter HO). In December 1888, General Booth asked the Home Office for £15,000 to provide cheap shelters for the outcast poor, Hansard, Third Series, CCCXXXII (1888), c. 648; Times, 11 December 1888, p. 5; 25 December, p. 9.
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52 War Cry, 30 August, 13 and 27 September, 1 and 29 November 1890. Smith left the Salvation Army before the final three articles were written, see below, pp. 158f. See also Inglis, , Churches, p. 209;Google Scholar Ch., Parkin, “The Salvation Army and Social Questions of the Day,” in: A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain, VI, p. 111. It would be interesting to know if any accord between the Salvation Army and the labour movement developed in the United States. My impression, for what it is worth, is that there were similar linkages: Labour Leader, IX (1897), p. 355;Google Scholar Boyer, P., Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820–1920 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), pp. 140–41.Google Scholar
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55 Cf. Thompson, “Social Control in Victorian Britain”, loc. cit.
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72 Ibid., pp. 18, 77–80, 108, 110, Appendix 2. Anti-sweating experiments were an integral part of the scheme, whether it was the proposal to enter the matchbox-making industry or the labour exchange for the employment of sandwich men, bill-distributors and messengers.
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77 Labour World, 25 October, p. 8; 15 November, p. 3 (letter). Cf. the response to In Darkest England of Durant, an English single-taxer, in a letter to Henry George, 27 October: “You will be pleased with it. It seems to me the most important thing that has occurred for some time”, cited in Ausubel, In Hard Times, p. 108.
78 Christian Socialist, December 1890, January and March 1891. For more critical expressions of Christian Socialist opinion, see Th., Hancock, Salvation by Mammon. Two Sermons on Mr. Booth's Scheme (London, 1891), p. 16; Church Reformer, IX (1890), p. 286;Google Scholar Jones, , The Christian Socialist Revival, op. cit., pp. 108–11, 121.Google Scholar
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81 Justice, 17 January 1891, p. 3; 24 January, p. 2 (H. Quelch spoke of Booth's “policy of pigwash and piety”); 9 April 1892, p. 2; Commonweal, VI (1890), pp. 345–46, 365. Cf. John Burns's critical response to the social scheme in an address to a Battersea Music Hall, Labour World, 1 November 1890, p. 2. Burns maintained a critical view of the Farm Colony, as he gradually abandoned the socialists for the Liberal Party, Brown, K. D.,Labour and Unemployment 1900–1914 (Newton Abbot, 1971), p. 81;Google Scholar Marsh, J., “The Unemployed and the Land”, in: History Today, 04 1982, p. 20; Times, 7 February 1908, p. 12. For a less hostile Socialist response, see the opening quotation to this article from Friedrich Engels.Google Scholar
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84 War Cry, 3 January 1891; Daily Chronicle, 2 January; 5 January (letter); Times, 6 January, p. 5; Champness, Frank Smith, pp. 14–16.
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87 Workers' Cry, 2 May 1891; Labour Prophet, 1(1892), p. 24; III, p. 114; War Cry, 30 November 1901; All the World, December 1901; Armytage, , Heavens Below, p. 320;Google Scholar Murdoch, , “Salvationist-Socialist Frank Smith”, p. 10;Google Scholar Champness, , Frank Smith, pp. 19–49.Google Scholar See also Morgan, K. O., Keir Hardie (London, 1975), pp. 45–46, for Smith's unique brand of ethical socialism.Google Scholar
88 Booth, W. B. to General Booth, 9, 11 and 14 04 1891,7 12 1894, 18 10 1895; id. to Commissioner Pollard, 13 12 1895; letters to General Booth, 29 09 1894, 8 11 1895, Salvation Army archives.Google Scholar See General Booth to Booth, W. B., 29 11 1905:Google Scholar “Your letter made me very sad last night, but Hadleigh has ever been a trial to us.” See also Hadleigh Official Journal, 1908–09; Swan, A. S., The Outsiders (London, 1905–1906), p. 61; Selected Papers on the Social Work of the Salvation Army (London, 1907–1908); Third Report from the Select Committee on Distress from Want of Employment [C. 365] (1895), qq. 9607–09 (H. E. Moore);Google Scholar Fleay, C., “Hadleigh: A labour colony and its problems, 1891–1914,” in: Middlesex Polytechnic History Journal, 11 (1981), passim.Google Scholar I am extremely grateful to Mr Fleay for sending me an offprint of this article. For descriptions of the Farm Colony, see Booth, , Life and Labour, Third Senes, VI, pp. 178–81; Report on Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed (Board of Trade, Labour Department) [C. 7182] (1893–1894), pp. 549–52. However, a favourable account of Hadleigh Colony appeared in the Clarion, 16 June 1892, p. 7.Google Scholar
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90 Heasman, , Evangelicals in Action, op. cit., pp. 60–61;Google Scholar Booth, , Life and Labour, First Series, I, p. 127; Third Series, VI, pp. 174-85; VII, p. 342; HO 45/9729/A52912;Google Scholar Clarion, , 27 08 1892, p. 6; 3 09, p. 6; 17 09, p. 4; 24 09, p. 5;Google Scholar Booth, W. B., Light in Darkest England in 1895 (London, 1895), p. 25. There were shelters in Bristol, Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, and one for women in both Edinburgh and Cardiff, in addition to the London shelters. For more favourable comments on the Salvation Army shelters, see Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration [Cd 2175] (1904), qq. 3669 (D. Eyre), 7876 (W. H. Libby).Google Scholar
91 “Elihu”, General Booth's Darkest England Scheme, op. cit., p. 11; Roxby, R. B., General Booth Limited. A Lime-Light on the “Darkest England” Scheme (London, 1893), p. 5;–21 05, p. 8; 27 08, p. 6; 3 09, p. 6:15 10, p. 5; 26 11, p. 5.Google Scholar See ibid., 1 October, p. 8, letter from a firewood cutter: “Now, when Commissioner Smith was head of the Salvation Army he received our deputation, and promised us that he would discontinue the practice of Firewood Cutting in the Salvation Army.” See also Church Reformer (edited by Headlam), XI (1892), pp. 210, 227–29, 249, 277; Headlam, S., Christian Socialism [Fabian Tract No 42] (London, 1892), p. 10. For Bramwell Booth's reply to these charges, and to the related charges of underselling on the Farm Colony, see Third Report from the Select Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, op. cit., qq. 9911, 9913. There were workshops in Bradford, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Hull, as well as in London. By 1903, there were 64 “elevators” in operation, Living Epistles: Sketches of the Social Work of the Salvation Army (London, 1903), p. 36.Google Scholar
92 Webb, B., Our Partnership (London, 1948), pp. 125–26;Google Scholar Ervine, , God's Soldier, II, p. 729. In consequence, the London Trades Council refused to join a demonstration against the Salvation Army organized by the Printers Federation.Google Scholar
93 Report of the Departmental Committee on Vagrancy [Cd 2891] (1906) (hereafter Vagrancy Committee), p. 96 (para 332), qq. 7414–16 (D. C. Lamb). In 1895, the Argentine looked like a possible site for an oversea colony, Booth, W. B. to General Booth, 18 10 1895, Salvation Army archives.Google Scholar
94 Harris, , Unemployment and Politics, pp. 124–35, quote at p. 128.Google Scholar
95 Third Report from the Select Committee on Want of Employment, q. 9963.
96 Ibid., q. 9911.
97 Fleay, , “Hadleigh”, loc. cit., p. 6;Google Scholar Booth, , Life and Labour, Third Series, I, p. 108; VII, p. 341;Google Scholar Vagrancy Committee, q. 5371 (Crooks); McBriar, , Fabian Socialism, pp. 120, 198, 202.Google Scholar
98 Vagrancy Committee, q. 7322 (Lamb).
99 Armytage, , Heavens Below, p. 321;Google Scholar Booth, , Echoes and Memories, op. cit., pp. 148–50. In 1895, W. T. Stead also visited Hadleigh and was “captured by what he saw” according to Bramwell Booth, Begbie, General William Booth, II, p. 204.Google Scholar
100 Blatchford, , My Eighty Yeats, op. cit., pp. 209–13; Hansard, Fourth Series, CXVIII (1903), c. 324 (Sir John Gorst);Google Scholar Gilbert, , National Insurance in Britain, op. cit., p. 99.Google Scholar
101 Report on the Salvation Army Colonies in the United States and at Hadleigh, England […] by Commissioner Haggard, H. Rider [Cd 2562] (1905), pp. 370, 377–79, 430–35; Report by the Departmental Committee appointee to consider Mr. Rider Haggard 's Report on Agricultural Settlements in British Colonies [Cd 2978] (1906), p. 545.Google Scholar One of the members of Lord Tennyson's Committee was Sidney Webb. See also Cohen, M. N., Haggard, Rider. His Life and Works (New York, 1961), pp. 239–43. Rider Haggard's report appeared in popular form as The Poor and the Land (1905), which was recommended reading in More Books to Read on Social and Economic Subjects [Fabian Tract No 129] (London, 1906).Google Scholar
102 Harris, , Unemployment and Politics, pp. 131–32; Vagrancy Committee, p. 77 (para 264), qq. 7 103–24 (Lamb), 10585–86 (H. Lockwood), Appendix XXIV.Google Scholar
103 Emigration-Colonisation: Proposals by General Booth (London, 1905), Beveridge Collection, Coll. B, III, item 28, British Library of Political and Economic Science; Fleay, C., “The Salvation Army and Emigration 1890–1914,” in: Middlesex Polytechnic History Journal, I (1980), pp. 63–64;Google Scholar cf., G. Wagner, Children of the Empire (London, 1982).Google Scholar Between 1906 and 1908, however, William Booth was pressing the Liberal Cabinet, particularly Earl Rosebery, for a loan of £100,000 for a Rhodesian colonization scheme, but without success: Begbie, , General William Booth, II, pp. 362–68;Google Scholar Hyam, R., Elgin and Churchill at the Colonial Office 1905–1908 (London, 1968), p. 287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
104 HO 45/10499/117669/4; Booth, W. to Booth, W. B., 29 11 1905, Salvation Army archives; Vagrancy Committee, qq. 6189, 7504; The Vagrant and the “Unemployable”. A Proposal by General Booth (London, 1904), pp. 9–18. For Wiffiam Beveridge's annotations to this pamphlet, see Beveridge Collection, Coil. B, IV, item 38.Google Scholar
105 Vagrancy Committee, Appendix XXVII. Gorst's bill was supported by Herbert Gladstone and R. B. Haldane, Liberal MPs, and by D. J. Shackleton and Will Crooks, Labour MPs. See HO 45/10499/117669/10 and 10578/179621/1–2. For Gorst, see McBriar, , Fabian Socialism, p. 215;Google Scholar Begbie, , General William Booth, II, p. 361;Google Scholar Gilbert, , National Insurance in Britain, pp. 94–95, 98–99, 130;Google Scholar Gorst, J. E., “Governments and Social Reform,” in: Fortnightly Review, LXXVII (1905), p. 848; id.,Google Scholar “Physical Deterioration in Great Britain,” in: North American Review, CLXXXI (1905), pp. 1–10;Google Scholar Hansard, , Fourth Series, CXXXV (1904), c. 648. See also Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, p. 24 (para 91).Google Scholar
106 See Vorspan, R., “Vagrancy and the New Poor Law in late-Victorian and Edwardian England,” in: English Historical Review, XCII (1977), pp. 78–79. See also Lloyd's Weekly News, 11 03 1906, p. 14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
107 Hardie, J. K., “Dealing With the Unemployed”, in: Nineteenth Century, LVII (1905), p. 52;Google Scholar Vorspan, , “Vagrancy and the New Poor Law”, p. 79.Google Scholar For Lansbury and Crooks, see Harris, , Unemployment and Politics, pp. 139–41, 143, 237;Google Scholar Marsh, , “The Unemployed and the Land”, loc. cit., pp. 16–20. The Weekly Dispatch, 2 02 1908, p. 6, however, was critical of this part of the Labour Party's scheme.Google Scholar
108 Orwell, G., The Road to Wigan Pier (London, 1937), p. 212;Google Scholar Gilbert, , National Insurance in Britain, pp. 72–77.Google Scholar See also Ball, S., The Moral Aspect of Socialism [Fabian Tract No 72] (London, 1896), p. 5; The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians [Fabian Tract No 126] (London, 1906), p. 22.Google Scholar
109 Webb, , Our Partnership, op. cit., p. 396.Google Scholar
110 Ibid., p. 400.
111 Ibid., p. 401; id. to Mary Playne, 2 February 1908, Passfield Papers, II,4 d, item 2. S., Cf. and Webb, B., The Prevention of Destitution, p. 243. See also Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress [Cd 4499] (1909), pp. 633 (Majority), 1206–08 (Minority). The Majority Report also proposed labour colonies for the residuum.Google Scholar
112 See Nicol, , General Booth and the Salvation Army, op. cit., p. 204.Google Scholar
113 Etherington, , “Hyndman, the Social-Democratic Federation, and Imperialism,” loc. cit., p. 98;Google Scholar Armytage, , Heavens Below, p. 326.Google Scholar R. V. Clements, Cf., “Trade Unions and Emigration 1840–1880,” in: Population Studies, IX (1955), pp. 167–80.Google Scholar
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115 This section is based on work done by Sheila Blackburn of Manchester University on the newspaper cuttings in Folder 207 of the Gertrude Tuckwell Collection. Tuckwell was, amongst other things, the honorary secretary of the Women's Trade Union League. The following items were the most helpful: Morning Post and Daily Chronicle for 7 September 1908; Nottingham Guardian, 10 September; Morning Leader, 20 January 1909; Bromley Chronicle, 18 February; Eastern Daily Press, 28 June; Dulwich Post, 14 August; Glasgow Herald, 27 September; Derby Telegraph, 15 August 1910; Northampton Echo, 10 September. See also Times, 2 September 1908, p. 10; 13 February 1909, p. 8; 8 March, p. 10; 30 August, p. 2; Salvation Army Sweating: Manifesto by the United Workers' Anti-Sweating Committee, Beveridge Collection, Coll. B, IV, item 15.
116 Daily News, 26 August 1907; Labour Leader, New Series, IV (1907), pp. 152, 178.
117 Daily Express, 26 August; Tribune, 7 September; Star, 16 September; Times, 7 September, p. 7; 22 September 1908, p. 9; A Calumny Exposed. A Reply to the unfounded charges of Sweating brought against the Hanbury Street Labour Home (London, 1909), passim. Alex Nicol subsequently left the Salvation Army and wrote favourably of state or Fabian socialism. Of the sweating issue, he later said: “It was alleged that sweating was practised here — I know it was. The Army officials argued to the contrary, and I am rather ashamed that I was among the number”. General Booth and the Salvation Army, p. 202.
118 Gardiner, A. G., Prophets, Priests, and Kings (London, 1914), p. 193.Google Scholar Booth's intransigence hardly dovetailed with the anti-sweating movement of the early twentieth century, for which see Mayor, , The Churches and the Labour Movement, pp. 124, 136, 219;Google Scholar Solden, N. C., Women in British Trade Unions 1874–1976 (Dublin, 1978), p. 65;Google Scholar Sh., Lewenhak, Women and Trade Unions (London, 1977), pp. 119–20.Google Scholar
119 Times, 9 September 1908, p. 12; Labour Leader, New Series, V (1908), p. 586; Our Society's History, ed. by Higenbottam, S. (Manchester, 1939), pp. 176–79; Report of Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Trades Union Congress (London, 1909), pp. 75–84, 119-22.Google Scholar
120 Times, 28 May 1908, p. 12; 5 February 1909, p. 7. Nor did the Anti-Sweating Committee gain any assistance from the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Truck Acts [Cd 4442] (1908), pp. 17–18. See, however, the Minority Report by Stephen Walsh and MrsTennant, H. J. at p. 93. Keir Hardie still often visited Salvation Army shelters in order to help the destitute, Pankhurst, The Suffragette Movement, p. 179;Google Scholar Morgan, , Keir Hardie, op. cit., p. 127.Google Scholar
121 Report of the Forty-Second Annual TUC, pp. 119–22; Yorkshire Evening News, 1910, undated cutting in the Tuckwell Collection; Times, 14 September 1910, p. 8.
122 Harrison, , Drink and the Victorians, op. cit., pp. 397–405.Google Scholar For the continued strength of the Nonconformist connection, however, see Mayor, , The Churches and the Labour Movement, p. 339;Google Scholar Brown, K. D., “Non-Conformity and the British Labour Movement: A Case Study”, in: Journal of Social History, VIII (1974–1975), No 2, pp. 113–20.Google Scholar
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