Regeneration | Page 7

I inspected was that of a paper-sorting works
at Spa Road, Bermondsey, where all sorts of waste paper are dealt with
in enormous quantities. Of this stuff some is given and some is bought.
Upon delivery it goes to the sorters, who separate it out according to
the different classes of the material, after which it is pressed into bales
by hydraulic machinery and sold to merchants to be re-made.
These works stand upon two acres of land. Parts of the existing
buildings were once a preserve factory, but some of them have been
erected by the Army. There remain upon the site certain
dwelling-houses, which are still let to tenants. These are destined to be
pulled down whenever money is forthcoming to extend the factory.
The object of the Institution is to find work for distressed or fallen
persons, and restore them to society. The Manager of this 'Elevator,' as
it is called, informed me that it employs about 480 men, all of whom
are picked up upon the streets. As a rule, these men are given their
board and lodging in return for work during the first week, but no
money, as their labour is worth little. In the second week, 6d. is paid to
them in cash; and, subsequently, this remuneration is added to in
proportion to the value of the labour, till in the end some of them earn
8s. or 9s. a week in addition to their board and lodging.
I asked the Officer in charge what he had to say as to the charges of
sweating and underselling which have been brought against the
Salvation Army in connexion with this and its other productive
Institutions.
He replied that they neither sweated nor undersold. The men whom
they picked up had no value in the labour market, and could get nothing
to do because no one would employ them, many of them being the
victims of drink or entirely unskilled. Such people they overlooked,
housed, fed, and instructed, whether they did or did not earn their food
and lodging, and after the first week paid them upon a rising scale. The
results were eminently satisfactory, as even allowing for the drunkards
they found that but few cases, not more than 10 per cent, were hopeless.
Did they not rescue these men most of them would sink utterly; indeed,
according to their own testimony many of such wastrels were snatched
from suicide. As a matter of fact, also, they employed more men per
ton of paper than any other dealers in the trade.

With reference to the commercial results, after allowing for interest on
the capital invested, the place did not pay its way. He said that a sum of
£15,000 was urgently required for the erection of a new building on
this site, some of those that exist being of a rough-and-ready character.
They were trying to raise subscriptions towards this object, but found
the response very slow.
He added that they collected their raw material from warehouses, most
of it being given to them, but some they bought, as it was necessary to
keep the works supplied, which could not be done with the gratis stuff
alone. Also they found that the paper they purchased was the most
profitable.
These works presented a busy spectacle of useful industry. There was
the sorting-room, where great masses of waste-paper of every kind was
being picked over by about 100 men and separated into its various
classes. The resulting heaps are thrown through hoppers into bins.
From the bins this sorted stuff passes into hydraulic presses which
crush it into bales that, after being wired, are ready for sale.
It occurred to me that the dealing with this mass of refuse paper must
be an unhealthy occupation; but I was informed that this is not the case,
and certainly the appearance of the workers bore out the statement.
After completing a tour of the works I visited one of the bedrooms
containing seventy beds, where everything seemed very tidy and fresh.
Clean sheets are provided every week, as are baths for the inmates. In
the kitchen were great cooking boilers, ovens, etc., all of which are
worked by steam produced by the burning of the refuse of the sorted
paper. Then I saw the household salvage store, which contained
enormous quantities of old clothes and boots; also a great collection of
furniture, including a Turkish bath cabinet, all of which articles had
been given to the Army by charitable folk. These are either given away
or sold to the employes of the factory or to the poor of the
neighbourhood at a very cheap rate.
The man in charge of this store was an extremely good-looking and
gentlemanly young follow of University education, who had been a
writer