The War Romance of the Salvation Army | Page 2

with the troops, which good-will we shall ever regard as
one of our greatest honors.
The lavish eulogy and sincere affection bestowed by the nation upon
the organization I can only account for by the simple fact that our
ministering members have been in spirit and reality with the men.
True to our first light, first teaching, and first practices, we have always
put ourselves close beside the man irrespective of whether his condition
is fair or foul; whether his surroundings are peaceful or perilous;
whether his prospects are promising or threatening. As a people we
have felt that to be of true service to others we must be close enough to
them to lift part of their load and thus carry out that grand injunction of
the Apostle Paul, "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law
of Christ."
The Salvation Army upon the battlefields of France has but worked
along the same lines as in the great cities of the nations. We are, with
our every gift to serve, close up to those in need; and so, as
Lieut.-Colonel Roosevelt put it, "Whatever the lot of the men, the
Salvation Army is found with them."
We never permit any superiority of position, or breeding, or even grace
to make a gap between us and any who may be less fortunate. To help
another, you must be near enough to catch the heart-beat. And so a
large measure of our success in the war is accounted for by the fact that
we have been with them. With a hundred thousand Salvationists on all
fronts, and tens and tens of thousands of Salvationists at their
ministering posts in the homelands as well as overseas, from the time
that each of the Allied countries entered the war the Salvation Army
has been with the fighting- men.
With them in the thatched cottage on the hillside, and in the humble
dwelling in the great towns of the homelands, when they faced the great
ordeal of wishing good-bye to mothers and fathers and wives and
children.
With them in the blood-soaked furrows of old fields; with them in the
desolation of No Man's Land; and with them amid the indescribable
miseries and gory horrors of the battlefield. With them with the
sweetest ministry, trained in the art of service, white-souled, brave,
tender-hearted men and women could render.
[Evangeline Booth]

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS SALVATION ARMY, NEW YORK
CITY.
April, 1919.

From the Commander's Own Pen

The war is over. The world's greatest tragedy is arrested. The awful pull
at men's heart-strings relaxed. The inhuman monster that leapt out of
the darkness and laid blood-hands upon every home of a peace-blest
earth has been overthrown. Autocracy and diabolical tyranny lie
defeated and crushed behind the long rows of white crosses that stand
like sign-posts pointing heavenward, all the way from the English
Channel to the Adriatic, linking the two by an inseverable chain.
While the nations were in the throes of the conflict, I was constrained
to speak and write of the Salvation Army's activities in the frightful
struggle. Now that all is over and I reflect upon the price the nations
have paid I realize much hesitancy in so doing.
When I think of England-where almost every man you meet is but a
piece of a man! France--one great graveyard! Its towns and cities a
wilderness of waste! The allied countries--Italy, and deathless little
Belgium, and Serbia--well-nigh exterminated in the desperate, gory
struggle! When I think upon it--the price America has paid! The price
her heroic sons have paid! They that come down the gangways of the
returning boats on crutches! They that are carried down on stretchers!
They that sail into New York Harbor, young and fair, but never again to
see the Statue of Liberty! The price that dear mothers and fathers have
paid! The price that the tens of thousands of little children have paid!
The price they that sleep in the lands they made free have paid! When I
think upon all this, it is with no little reluctance that I now write of the
small part taken by the Salvation Army in the world's titanic sacrifice
for liberty, but which part we shall ever regard as our life's crowning
honor.
Expressions of surprise from officers of all ranks as well as the private
soldier have vied with those of gratitude concerning the efficiency of
this service, but no thought of having accomplished any achievement
higher than their simplest duty is entertained by the Salvationists
themselves; for uniformly they feel that they have but striven to

measure up to the high standards of service maintained by the Salvation
Army, which standards ask of its officers all over the world that no
effort shall be left unprosecuted, no sacrifice unrendered,