THE SALVATION ARMY.

Evening Star, Issue 20089, 1 February 1929, Page 8

THE SALVATION ARMY.

The valid effect of the act of the High Council of the Salvation Army in deposing its general on the ground of physical unfitness has been delayed, not averted, by the latest decision of the High Court. General Booth applied to the court for an injunction restraining the council from acting on its decision. Mr Justice Eve has ruled that the council was certainly empowered to adjudicate anyone as unfit. But before its resolution was passed making that judgment on its leader it should have given him an opportunity to argue his fitness. That will soon be done, and in view of th© majority by which the resolution was reached —fifty-live members supporting it, with only eight dissentients, of whom four were members of the general’s family—it can be taken lor granted that it will bo passed again. The issue can be considered as one between filial piety on th© general’s part and denominational policy on the part of his officers. General Booth has been less concerned for his own continuance in office than in resisting the prospect of a new state of rule lor the Army which would be a departure from his father’s principle of autocratic control. The old general was undoubtedly strong on that principle. “He learned from experience,” his perhaps too sympathetic biographer has written, “ that to got anything done well and swiftly autocracy was essential. He could not suffer his work to bo hindered by committees and councils. He could not stop on his road to discuss matters of casuistry or questions of finance. He was always inveighing against 1 government by talk.’ ” It was impossible that'his* principle could be indefinitely tolerated. The autocracy ol the first general mado sharp troubles tor him, and had its own disadvantages for his movement during his lifetime. Its natural termination was foretold by Mr IJegbio when he described it as an autocracy “ which depended absolutely on th© loyalty of his followers.” That loyalty evidently has become incompatible with the principle which conmets with every modern sentiment. I’he second general has done great work lor the Army, for which his name is venerated, but it is a mistaken and a hopeless battle which on this issue he lights.