hough conditions are
evidently vastly different in this country and England from what they
are in Germany.

[55] See examples numbered 4. 5. 9. 23 and others, on p. 78 and fl.

[56] While this percentage is larger than that in the Industrial Homes
(see p. 62), 62 per cent. of the examples in the Hotels having regular
trades were dissipated, mostly victims of drink, as against 19 per cent.
in the Industrial examples.

CHAPTER III.

THE FARM COLONIES OF THE SALVATION ARMY.

So many times has the cry been raised "back to the land!", so optimistic
have so many reformers become over the hope that the population could be
diverted from the city to the country, and so loudly have certain
enthusiasts prophesied a surely successful issue to colonizing
enterprises, that the Salvation Army colonies form a very interesting
and profitable field of investigation. What is needed is an experiment
that will prove or disprove the prophesied success of taking the people
back to the land. Once that is proved, with the great Northwest of
America almost untouched, with immense tracts of good land in Africa and
other continents, and with the United States about to open up millions
of acres of land, made fertile by means of irrigation, we shall be ready
to act and get rid of the surplus city population. But first we must
have the proof, and the question before us is whether the Salvation Army
has sufficiently proved the case.

The matter was agitated before the English Government to such an extent
in 1905 that the Rhodes Trustees, contributing sufficient funds to cover
the expense, the Secretary of State for the Colonies nominated Mr. Rider
Haggard, the novelist, to visit the United States and inspect the three
Salvation Army colonies there, to make a report on the same, and to
include in this report any practical suggestions which might occur to
him. The following words were used in the letter of commission: "It
appears to the Secretary of State that if these experiments are found to
be successful, some analogous system might to great advantage be applied
in transferring the urban population of the United Kingdom to different
parts of the United Kingdom."[57]

Mr. Haggard visited the three colonies in the United States, and made a
report to the English Government, favoring strongly the movement, and
recommending that the Government take it up, provide the capital and
utilize all ready existing organizations, such as the Salvati