p.4. Telegrams announce the death of William Booth, founder and head of the world-wide Salvation Army. General Booth is considered by countless thousands to be the world's greatest philanthropist. Whether future historians and statisticians will confirm this claim time only can tell. Like all charity the work of the Army is an emergency lift or a first aid rather than lasting or continuous help. The principle of this organization is one of self-denial rather than self-assertion and begging is thoroughly systematised.

Much criticism has been aimed at the Salvation Army because it seems to have used funds for religious propaganda instead of for charity without submitting a public statement as to how the funds were used. As long as the government or communications are unable to plan or extend the needed relief, men like Booth and his followers must be supported in their work when and where the need is evident.

In regard to the doctrines preached by this group, we doubt if the final consensus of opinion will be very favorable. Booth's Christianity is an "enmasse" application rather than the Biblical individual regeneration. It is based on an appeal to feelings and emotions rather than to understanding and moral conviction and marks on the lower instinct of mankind by stimulating the desire for noise and sensation.

That this new method has worked on the masses and enabled the Salvation Army to out-do all other organizations in increased membership is evident. It has also enabled the Army to obtain its horns, drums, tambourines, guitars, banners and uniforms, its knee drill and hand clapping accompaniment to the singing. The system has also affected other organizations who have copied the methods in carrying on revivals; even the staid Church of England has its church army and critical Denmark has its "Kors Haer" (Army of the Cross). These organizations are true copies of the Salvation Army in method and set-up; the only difference being in the uniform and in the fact that they are headed by members of the clergy of the State Church.

The whole system is a sign of the increasing sensualism of religious movements and of a newer cult that is constantly spreading. It is not a step forward or upward but a reversion toward the old barbarism.