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Show I GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH i M-f-f $ i i 1 GEN. BOOTH ON EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY STARTS NEW PLAN Veteran Founder of Salvation Army Launches : Scheme for "University of Humanity" in the I United States Alt the World Celebrates Anniversary of His Birth. Now York. Gen. Wlllfam Booth. I founder and commander-in-chief of the T Snlvntion Army, celobrated his eightieth eight-ieth birthday on' Saturday, April 10, ' and tho event was made the occasion " of rejoicing all over tho civilized world. Tho Army Itaolf hold big moot-i moot-i Ings In cvory city and town whero It 1 la established, and theso were parllcl- 1 pated in by hundreds of thousands of other citizens who wore glad to do j honor to tho distinguished philan thropist. Gen. Dooth hlmsolf presided over several monster mass meotlngs In ( London. Ills advanced ago and tho fact that ho was operated on recently for cataract did not deter him from taking part In tho celebrations held by ' his dovoted soldiers. University of Humanity Launched., In America tho day was marked especially by tho launching of another of den. Booth's original schomes for social reform In tho United States, At every post of tho army was announced an-nounced the beginning of work to found a Unlvorslty of Humanity, a great institution for tho training of workers in social service. The unlvorslty unl-vorslty will bo divided botweon Now York and Chicago, and It Is expected to begin with a fund of $1,000,000. The gathering of this fund Is tho work that tho army now enters upon In commomoratlon of Its famous loador's completion of his clghtloth year. As a much-needed stone In tho groat organizational structure that William Dooth has been building during tho past 47 years, this Idea of n school for tho systematic training of his workors has boon In his mind for several sev-eral years. On his last visit to the Unltod States tho goneral mado his first tontatlvo announcement of tho plan. Suico then he haB worked out many of tho details and he has just consented to tho beginning of preliminary pre-liminary work In this country whore tho need for tralnod workors has boon especially great Growth of Great System. It Is perhaps not generally realized that tho wholo lntrlcato modern machinery ma-chinery of civilization for tho uplifting uplift-ing of tho submorgod tenth, tho vast V system of charities now so essential v n part of modern life, Is to a very large extent an outgrowth of tho Booth Idea. Ho was tho first to see that tho unfortunate could host bo reached by those who had Buffered as tlioy had, and that they must bo reached by practical worldly help he-fore he-fore thoy could bo proparod to begin the cleanor life. It was tho Salvation Army which first mado a practical working success of this now familiar principle of so-called "missionary work." This whole plan of campaign for ulslng tho fallen began on a, vory simple scne In tho povorty-Btrlckon and crlmo-lnfcsted ICnst end of Loudon Lou-don and under the Impetus of William Uodth's singular force of 'mind and personality and tho momentum that It has authored with almost miraculous I rapidity It hat developed luto a truly I Astonishing organization. t Somo of tho departments of Its work arc: Prlsongato and Rescuo, Inebriates' homes, Boys' and Girls' homes, Farm colonies, Emigration, Naval and Military homes, Maternity homes, nursing, Samarltnn brigades, hospital and benevolent visitation, po-llco po-llco court work nnd Indian school training. No other religious organization In the world's history has branched out Into so many departments of philanthropic philan-thropic effort and absorbed them as part of its religious duties. Need of Trained Workers. Tho schemo for a Unlvorslty of Humanity Hu-manity grow naturally out of the development de-velopment of tho 20 other departments. depart-ments. With a Hold as wldo as tho world Itself tho work of tho Salvation Army is fcnly limited by tho nulnber of workers that can bo secured and Its effectiveness by the understanding nnd earnestness of theso workers. As uplift work has grown from local efforts ef-forts to help a few Into a great Inclusive In-clusive movement which must miss none, the problems of organization have grown greater. Charity has bo-come bo-come a sclenco and Its application an art requiring tho highest development of personal qualities of Insight and altruism. There Is thus pressing need for workors of quite exceptional qualification. qual-ification. Theso qualifications muBt first of all bo Inhoront nnd must then bo dovolopcd by exporlenco and special spe-cial training. This Is tho now work planned by Gon. Booth. Those womon, for Instance, In-stance, who aro to go among tho slums of tho bg cities must not only havo tho deslro to help but must know how real helpfulness can best bo Bo-cured. Bo-cured. Thoy must understand by a study of prnctlcal sociology something some-thing of the social forces that create this poverty and crime and wretchedness. wretched-ness. Thoy must understand tho danger dan-ger ot tho unwise' charity that merely Incrensos dopondenco nnd undorstnnd tho valuo of better living conditions In raising tho moral courage of those to whom fato has been unkind. Thoy must bo nblo not only to correct homo conditions themselves but to Impart their knowlodgo and to Inspire with a deslro for betterment. Value of the Organization. This will bo but a Bmall part of the university's training In Boclnl service as planned by tho patriarchal evangel-1st, evangel-1st, but It sorves to show of what value such an organization will be. Of tho gonorarfl plan for tho unlvorslty unl-vorslty ho himself said recently: "I want to train men and womon to deal with mlarortuno, I want them In-structod In-structod to combat with tho weaknesses weak-nesses and Bins of tho drunkard, tho criminal, tho pauper nnd tho would-be sulcldo." At 80 years of ago the head of tho Salvation Army, attor more than half n contury of almost unceasing uctlylty, is ur vigorous and untiring as at any tlmo In his career. Tho Inoxhaustlhlo vitality and lntollectual and physical activity of this Boclal roforemr, philanthropist, philan-thropist, preacher, nuthor nnd traveler aro marvolous. At fourBCoro he la traveling many thousands ot miles ovor the world'ovory year, controlling tho j destinies of his' '"lore 'than 7,000, corpS df Salvation soldiery with tholr 1S.000 commissioned officers, distributed distribu-ted among overy civilized country, preaching constantly to vast audiences and doing an nmount of literary work that would bo n facer to many u professional Author with no othor occupation, oc-cupation, v, William Booth was bom on April 10, 1820, In Nottingham, England, and was trained for tho Mothodlst ministry minis-try which ho entered and became one of tho strongest evangelistic forces in that church. Ho grew dissatisfied, however, ot reaching only those with somo religious training rind conviction. convic-tion. Ho folt that thoro wore thousands thous-ands whoso need was far greater and ho gravitated to tho East end of London Lon-don where wretchedness of all kinds was tho rule. In n disused burial ground on Mile End road ho pitched an old tent and iho first Salvationist mooting was hold In that f.cnt In 1801. Tho flory eloquonco of tho earnest young preacher caught tho attention of a crowd of poor Whltcchapolors and bo-foro bo-foro that first mooting was over ho hod mado soverol conversions, a performance per-formance thnt ho has been fopeatlng throughout tho world for 47 yoars. How Ho Started the Army. This first meeting resulted In tho-formntlon tho-formntlon of tho Christian mission, from which It was tho evangelist's custom to send his converts to tho existing ex-isting churches of tho locality, but finding that thoy wcro not welcomed and wore In danger of slipping back from sheer want of comradeship and oversight, ho sot about forming societies so-cieties of tho converted. These ho found to bo a potent agency for bringing bring-ing In moro, as tho heedless East ondor could bo impressed by tho words of a former "pal" when ho would not listen to a mtnlstor. So was created tho central Idea of tho Salvation Army. The need of organization becomes apparent, but several methods were tried with little success before Gen. Booth hit upon tho military Idqa and named his organization the Salvation Army., From that tlmo on tho movement move-ment grow amazingly and It has continued con-tinued to grow without ceasing to this day. 8pread Over the World. Tho movement began spreading to othor countries of tho world In 1881 when it first reached tho United States through tho Influence of a silk-weaver silk-weaver who had emigrated from Coventry, Cov-entry, England, bringing with him the Salvation Army Idea 'and a strong deslro de-slro to continue In tho work. It reached Australia In the same year through a milk dealer from Stopnoy, and soon afterwards tho first Canadian corps was organized In a Blmllar fashion. Five years later, in 1880, tho general gen-eral mado tho first of many vUIts to the Amorlcan branches or tho army and ho has Been them grow from a few small corps Into a veritable army of tremendous influenco and unsurpassed unsur-passed offlcloncy. His first great world-tour was mado In 1891, when ho vlBlted South Africa, Australia and India. Slnco then ho has visited tbo United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India four times, South Africa twico and Japan and the Holy Land each onco. During nil theso travols tho actual oxecutlvo responsibility for tho government gov-ernment of tho army has nover been lifted from his shouldors. Even on Bhlpboardio Is an Indofntlgablo worker, work-er, planning and writing through tho dayB. Gen. Dooth Honored. Ono ot tho most remarkable ot the many tributes paid to tho general by tho great of tho world was that of tho mikado ot Japan during tho visit to that country. Tho mikado personally received the general with groat warmth and ho was accorded remark-ablo remark-ablo ovations in Yokohama, Tokyo, Sendal and Kyoto, a circumstance of strange Import when It is realized that Japan Is not a Christian country. Another interesting distinction given Gen. Booth was tho conferring on him of tho degree of doctor of civil law by Oxford university. Tho significance of this honor will bo hotter understood under-stood when It Is stated those who received re-ceived unlvorslty honors with him at tho tlmo wore Prince Arthur of Con-naughtt Con-naughtt the prime mlnlstor of England, Eng-land, thb lord chancellor, tho speakor, Sir E. Grey, tho archbishop ol Armagh, Sir Evelyn Wood, tho Amorlcan Amorl-can ambassador, Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling. As a writer Gen. Booth is remarkable, remark-able, both as a stylist, as a thlnkot and us a producer. Ho has written In all 21 volumes, besides 'Innumerable nrtlclos for tho army publications His best known book is "In Darkest England and tho Way Out," In which ho outlined his schemo for social reform re-form by means of colonization. "The Training of Children," "Love, Mar-rlago Mar-rlago and tho Homo," and his books on reform aro among tho others of tho goneral's best known literary productions. pro-ductions. Writes of His Creed Ot his creed the gonoral has written very boautlfully. Ho Bays: "Tho simplicity of our creed has been, as I believe It will remain, ono of tho principal helps to our uulty. Wo stand for tho old. truths, Tho faith which can bo lntorprotod In tonna of duty, of unselfishness, of purity, of lovo to God and mun,- Is tho only faith wo real)y caro about. What, ovor may bo tho caso with tho select minority, tho consciousness of sin, the force ot ovll habit nnd tho consciousness con-sciousness ot Bin and thq influonco at passion, aro all vivid realities with tho great masses of the population. To them we bring tho promlso of do-llvoranco do-llvoranco by Jesus Christ." |