The Social Work of the Salvation ArmyLamb, Edwin Gifford
History
The Social Work of the Salvation Army
Lamb, Edwin Gifford
Poor; Salvation Army; Social history
But along with advantages there may be disadvantages. Some objections
have been raised to this branch of the Army's work. For instance, it is
stated that industries entered into by the Army tend to hurt economic
conditions with regard to both wages and prices.[29] With regard to
wages it is urged that the Army will keep for its industries, workers in
constraint of one kind or another, paying them a lower wage than the
same workers could procure outside, and thus lowering the wages in the
respective industries. We do not consider this objection a strong one.
Let us forget for the present the philanthropic side of the industrial
work, and look on it as a distinctly economic enterprise, as a factor of
production. We think it quite likely that a manager, anxious above
everything else to make his institution a financial success, would make
an endeavor to keep as long as possible, and at as low wages as
possible, men who could receive more on the outside. He might even try
to retain men for whom he could secure better positions through the
employment bureau, if he needed their services, and times were so good
that no other applicant offered to take their place, but this he could
not succeed in doing to any serious extent; for, in the first place, the
restraint exercised over the men is very slight, and secondly, if the
men could secure better wages, it would not be long before they found it
out and left the home voluntarily. It would be just the same as in any
industry in which most of the workers are ignorant. They would remain
under low wages just as long as their ignorance and lack of initiative
would allow, but sooner or later the relatively able man would seek the
best wage. Hence the able man would seek the best wage, and his place
would be taken by one, possibly morally and physically unable to procure
any wage, or, in other words, belonging to the unemployable class. If it
should come to the point of the Army's hiring able men to carry on the
work without aiding the outcasts, it must compete in the market for them
and pay the market price. The only real danger would lie in the Army's
industrial work securing a strong enough position in some industry to be
able to dictate terms to labor in an industry, but this is so unlikely
as to be almost irrelevant and even in such an almost inconceivable
case, the danger would be only temporary. Labor would still be able to
drift sufficiently to another agency, not controlled by the Army and
thus bring up wages again. This is the more true in that any industry,
in which the Army engages, must of necessity be one in which unskilled
labor is competent.[30] In addition to this, from personal
investigation, we can state that a large part of the labor employed in
these plants of the Army is at any rate temporarily inefficient labor
and would not have much chance in securing employment elsewhere.
Finally, though considered a charitable work, this branch of the army
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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