WORSE REMEDIES 



193 



But the correlate of despotic authority is 

 unlimited responsibility. If Mr. Booth is to take 

 credit for any good that the Army system has 

 effected, he must be prepared to bear blame for 

 its inherent evils. As it seems to me, that has 

 happened to him which sooner or later happens 

 to all despots : he has become the slave of his 

 own creation the prosperity and glory of the 

 soul-saving machine have become the end, instead 

 of a means, of soul-saving ; and to maintain these 

 at the proper pitch, the " General " is led to do 

 things which the Mr. Booth of twenty years ago 

 would probably have scorned. 



And those who desire, as I most emphatically 

 desire, to be just to Mr. Booth, however badly 

 they may think of the working of the organisation 

 he has founded, will bear in mind that some 

 astute backers of his probably care little enough 

 for Salvationist religion ; and, perhaps, are not 

 very keen about many of Mr. Booth's projects. I 

 have referred to the rubbing of the hands of the 

 Socialists over Mr. Booth's success ; l but, unless I 

 err greatly, there are politicians of a certain 

 school to whom it affords still greater satisfaction. 

 Consider what electioneering agents the captains 

 of the Salvation Army, scattered through all our 

 towns, and directed from a political " bureau " in 

 London, would make ! Think how political 

 [adversaries could be harassed by our local 



1 See Letter VIII. 

 VOL. IX O 



