Figure 1.--Here Atlanta, Georgia boys are involved in wood working at a Salvation Army equipped facility. The press caption reads, "This Salvation Army work shop is equipped with bansaws, jigsaw machines, sanding machines, drills and all other professional tools, so as to make the shop attractions a large one. Salvation Army boys; clubs in every large city boast such a shop. This particular one is in Atlanta, Ga." Notice the uniformed Salvation Army man in the background offering carepentry skills. We get the impression that the Army set up these failities in low-income areas of cities. In Georgia this meant that the facilities were segregated at the time. In the North they would not have been. The photograph was destributed by the Salvation Amy headquarters in New York. The image is undated, but looks like the 1930s.

Our information on Salvation Army country trends is limited. Our focus here is on children. The Salvation Army had a junior auxilery, but the greter impact on children may have been the support of families and programs that benefitted children. We have only limited information on these activities at this time, but are looking for more information. There was clearly a Junior Auxilery to the Salvation Army in England. The Army was active in many other countries. We are unsure, however, as to just what other countries had Junior Auxileries. We believe that even in countries with Junior Auxileries, rather small numbers of boys were involved. England may be an exception, but even in England the Junior Auxileries seem a rather small number of boys compared to the larger youth groups like the Scouts and Boys' Brigade.

England

William Booth embarked upon his career as a minister in England (1852). He had the idealistic vision of saving the lost multitudes of the English poor over to Jesus. Booth did not pursue conventional ministry of a church and pulpit. He took his ministry to the people he felt needed it the most. He went out on the steets of London to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the city's poor, homeless, hungry, and destitute. Established church leaders in London were agast. They though this was undignified for a Christian minister. They thought ministers should work through churches and preserve a degree of decorum. Not only did they not like Booth's methods, they did not relly want the peole whch he preached to coming to their churches. Established ministers sought the prestige of having congrgations with the most important people of the country. Booth ecentually withdrew from the established church and began traveling throughout England, preaching his unconventionl ministry. He conducting evangelical meetings. His wife Catherine was with him all the way and was essentially a cofounder of Salvatio Movement which came to be called the Salvation Army. General Booth died (1912), but by that time the Salvation Army was an important Christian mvement. His eldest son, Bramwell Booth, succeeded him as the Salvation Army General. Bramwell was born in Yorkshire (1856). The Booth family regularly moved from place to place as William Booth's ministry necessitated until the family finally settled in London in 1865. Bramwell Booth was involved in The Salvation Army right from its origins as the obscure Christian Mission, established in Whitechapel (1865), into an international Christian organisation with a range of social activities like soup kitchen focused on the poor and down trodden. He was educated at home, briefly at a preparatory school and finally at the City of London School, where he was bulliedby the other boys. Bramwell was responsible for the groups current name. He became an active full-time collaborator (1874). His father was dictating a letter to his secretary George Scott Railton and said, "We are a volunteer army." Bramwell heard this and exclaimed "Volunteer? I'm no volunteer, I'm a regular!" His father instructed, Railton to cross out the word 'volunteer' and substitute the word 'salvation'. The Salvtion Army in Britain organized Junior Auxileries and much of our information comes from British sources. Britain may be an excetion concerning Junior uxileries, but even in Britain, the numbers of boys involved the Salvation Army Junior Auxileries were very small compred to other Youth Groups like the Boy Scouts and Boys' Brigade.

America

The Salvation Army not only spread throughout Britain, but crossed the Atlantic. Like the Boy Scouts it was an unofficial crossing. SA Lieutenant Eliza Shirley had followed her parents to America. She held the first meeting of The Salvation Army in America, in Philadelphia (1879). The Salvationists as in Britain were at first received enthusiastically. Shirley wrote back to General Booth, begging for 'reinforcements'. None were immediately available. Reports of her efforts in Philadelphia, however, eventually convinced Booth to send an official group (1880). Commissioner George Scott Raiton and seven SA women officers knelt on the dockside at Battery Park in New York City to give thanks for their safe arrival. At their first official street meeting, these SA pioneers met hostility as had been the case in Britain. Not only were the rough areas of New York a challenge, but the established churches were not supportive. They early alvationists were ridiculed, arrested for creating a public nusance , and even attacked. Several officers and soldiers were atually killed. They did ther jib, howeb=ver, and within only three years, Railton and other Salvationists had operation set up in California, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. President Grover Cleveland not only received a delegation of SA officers (1886), but gave the organization his personal endorsement. This would be the first of similar White Hiouse receptions from various presidents. We have never seen actual photographs of Salvation Army Junior Auxileries in the United States. We have seen them depicted in movies, but am unsure just how authoratative thus was. We also see boys in America involved in a range of activities. As in Europe, the number of boys seem small compared go Scouting. There may have been regional differences. The SA youth activities may have been most pronounced in the Bible Belt. Here we are just beginning to collect information. The Protestasnt orientation of the Army was a factor here.

Other Countries

The Salvation Army movement expanded to Canada, Australia, France, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Iceland, and other countries around the world. Its genrtlly Christian, in fact, rotesant base, means that its influencehave been strngest in British Empire countries and america.