GENERAL BOOTH'S TOUR.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12933, 12 October 1907, Page 12

GENERAL BOOTH'S TOUR.

I Having travelled some 2000 miles, having addressed some 200,000 people, I and having arknowledged the greetings of some 2,000,000 others, during his recent motor tour (says Douclas Story in the '•Tribune"), General Booth finished brighter, fresher, fitter than when ho ktirted. As he bade mc good-bye I realised that hf» was younger at the end of five weeks of such physical labour as wcu!d tax a twenty-year-old than ■when he set out from London. In the first days I was interested at the frequency of his reference to Japan, at the extent to which the Japanese experiences obaessed his mind. In those 'latter times I have not hoard Japan mentioned once. England has claimed her own, and he summed up hia appreciation of the tour H the phrase "What a glorious country England is! What a beautiful people the English are I It b Rood to be an Englishman." , Tho man who started as Booth the Evangelist, became Booth the Social

Reformer, is rapidly developing into Booth *Jie Empire Builder. The other day he remarked to mc, "You probably think in nations. I think in individuals." To mo it scenis that t<lo number of those individuals has become so great that, imperceptibly, he, too. is thinJring in nations, in nationsthat combine to make a universal brotherhood, a world-nation. In the weoks that have passed General Booth s horizon has widened, but it ie n horizon as British as -was Cecil Rhodes's. Upon one who has travelled far with the Salvationists the conviction is forced that the Wret of their success, as of all success, is concentration on the- life of the Army. The officers Hnd in that life every interest, every task, every joy, every amusement for which their soul hungers. In conversation among themselves they talk nothing but Army, and they never tiro of the topic. More strangely still the casual listener i.ever -wearies. The subject is world-wido, stretching out to eternity. The same concentration on the part of each individual member has mad© of tho Army an organisation of absolutely unique power in the world's polity. That power is hardly yet dreamed of by the Salvation Army, ie only now faintly being realised by General Booth himself,, The Army is a political force more able to compel its tenets of peace and goodwill among men than any delegation to a Peace Conference or any finding of a Peace, Tribunal. It is no advocate of active Socialism. It demands no wider franchise. Ite strength is within itself, and within itself women are the equals of men. Its power has been demonstrated time and time, again in the course of the recent tour. Twenty years ago Worthing was a centre of disturbance. Tho Array officers were beaten and stoned. Cavalry had to bo brought from Brighton to quell the riots. \esterday the streets were crowded -with smiling, welcoming multitudes. The Theatre Royal was filled to overflowing, and the holiday makers forsook the Front to listen to informal addressee, in side streets. At the w«y-going, Worthing, with all its seaside thousands, was out to bid us God-speed. Legislation had done nothing to popularise the Salvation Army. It had wrought ite own justification. Twenty-two years ago the officer who started the mission at Shoreham-on-Sea was so maltreated that he died of hie injuries. Last night the urfoan council stopped the traffic through ite streets that a epaoe might be left clear for the General. Of ite own initiative it enclosed a stand, mode a collection, and handed to the great Salvationist ten guineas voluntarily given by the crowd. The force withm the Army bad worked the change of attitude. Hundreds of thousands of people during these past five week's have waved their veneration for the Army. To the men in charge th»t universal reepect opens up vast avenues for development. Salvation ism no longer means street preaching. It is an active political and social power aimed only at the amelioration of mankind.