rrfvrtT3 5 'i X EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, MAY '24, 1919 v -fl TZt.M. OranVll.SlafdBO I WANAMAKER'S I Store Opens at 9 I WANAMAKER'S I Store Closes at 5 I WANAMAKER'S I WEATHER Victory Chlm t 0j , OlOUtt rw's s an Emergency of Emergencies m ? A SS of the Salvation Army of the United States Under advice, mainly outside of Pennsyl vania, the honored and much over-worked Commander Booth and her staff, felt compell ed' to undertake the present drive all over the United States to gather Thirteen Millions of Dollars. It was with considerable trepidation that they entered upon the great undertaking. Pressing needs from the war captains still in the field, where half a million of our troops remain,-some of them perhaps for- an indefinite time, required the use of money already in the Salvation Army treasury balances, intended for hom.e support, and the daily expenses left a comparatively empty bank account, and with almost hourly appeals for assistance from stranded men in the large cities. Some of these were from the ships and some from training camps from men overtaken with little or no money in their pockets. Unprepared for the higher cost of every thing, tfye Salvation Army's f u-n ds have dwindled down rapidly. At this juncture, a gale of gratitude to the Salvation Army sweeping over the' United States for its past work has been much augmented by the returning troops, who remembered and told over and over to the folks at home their story again of how the Salvation Army had befriended them. This is the way the present movement started. Nobody thought of local conditions in any city. - No one thought of interfering with other war collections, nor did any one dream that comparisons would occur causing reflections and criti cisms upon other noble and magnificently able and useful organizations. The Salvation Army, in its humble, unselfish, glorious, heaven-inspired work has made an earnest plea to Philadelphia to help it in its very great need. To carry on its work it needs $13,000,000 at once, and it must have it; otherwise there will be unavoidable suffering. It asks and prays for the help of Philadel phia at this time. i It set the time at one week from May 19th to 26th. Honorable John M. Patterson, a Judge of our Common Pleas Courts, in spite of the great burden of his official duties, consented to organize and conduct the Campaign, and tias worked day and night to bring it to success. In nearly all quarters the work has met with most cordial approval? and the most ardent of praise of all has come from soldiers just returned from overseas. In fact returned soldiers are believed to have made so far more contributions thdn the people at home in proportion to their means. A But in spite of the devoted work of Judge Patterson and his devoted associates, in spite of the warm regard in which the Salvation Army is held by the soldiers, It seems as if Philadelphia is not making as yet the progress expected. vThis is undoubtedly because the situation is not properly understood in all quarters. Let us have some facts : The $13,000,000 drive is a Home Service Drive, not a drive for over-seas work, like the War Chest Drive of last year, not yet wholly paid in, nor for any other purpose than the great home work that the Salvation Army is now engaged in.1 The people who pledged the War Chest surely do not mean to dodge their pledges. The War Chest accepted their pledges in good faith and they cannot in honor be left on the backs of the War Chest Committee. Let us play ifar! 'Of course, thousands of small subscribers understood that they had until the end of .June, 1919, to pay their last installment and the amounts are not yet all collected 'r but employers take no risk in paying up the War Chest, as it has a right to expect. The $13,000,000 being raised for the Salvation Army is not intended to enrich any of its officers or members. None of these people ever have any money except the most meager salaries that hardly any of the readers oi tnis statement wouia consider a living wage. a Every cent of the money is to go for real work. Every cent of it to be spent right here in America for Rescue Homes, Orphanages, Hospitals, Lodging Houses for the Poor, Day Nurseries, In fant Shelters, Industrial Centers, Free Clinics and Dispensaries, Fresh Air Farms for Tenement Children, Shelters for the aged and helpless, Free Employment Bureaus, Prison and Rescue Work, Free Ice and Coal Stations, Comfort and Aid for the American boys who fought in the war, and for their families and relatives. We all remember that, before it went into the magnificent war work where it amazed the armies of all the Allies by its efficiency, the Salvation Army was supported almost wholly by the collections of the dauntless girl who wore a poke bonnet and banged a tambourine. Then the war came on and the girl laid aside the tambourine and hung the poke bonnet on a peg, and went up to the front line and made coffee and cooked doughnuts. She made good. She made coffee and cooked doughnuts, and she kept right on up to the front all the time. She was at Chateau Thierry, and she was wherever the fighting was thickest. She was wherever the suffering was greatest. Ready with her coffee pot and her doughnut pan and her smile and her prayer! She went through the fire. She proved herself. She made the Salvation Army great in the war and great in the world. And now the Salvationists are coming home to a bigger job. They did such big things and did them so well that now, when we have more big things thrust upon us at home, somehow nearly every body looks naturally to the Salvation Army to do them. The work of rescue among men, the work for the estimated "sub merged tenth" that the Salvation Army faces, is too big for the tambour--ine, and the time of these Faithful young women. is too valuable now for them to devote to collections in the old way. They must set about greater work, and the money for their modest expenses must be found in some other way. Philadelphians have never been urgently called upon to help so good a cause that she failed to respond. Signed' May 24, 1919. fM m h (J ii ufom i ' i i f . - J-. &&&?& ' i. i?i MJBWJfe.V' J few&t "" V r .aur &J&eS?g $:: ?- Tv L&cfirf3tdttAi,Jifc
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers