http://salvationist.ca/2009/11/the-crisis-that-shook-the-army-world/ The Voice of The Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda Fri, 18 May 2012 15:42:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://salvationist.ca/2009/11/the-crisis-that-shook-the-army-world/comment-page-1/#comment-1497 Rob Jeffery Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:15:28 +0000 http://salvationist.ca/?p=4460#comment-1497 I enjoyed the article promoting General Larson's book about the 1929 leadership crisis. It's not a well known story among Salvationists today. Doing some research on the story myself I noticed how the Winnipeg Free Press carried near daily news on the constitutional crisis. In fact nearly every news paper in the western world showed similar headlines. The extent to which the goings-on of the Army caught the eye of the public back then was truly phenomenal. Today it would be a PR Secretary's dream (or nightmare) to have that amount of publicity. While Bramwell Booth was physically unable to perform the duties of his generalship during his final few months, that is not why the High Council voted to depose him. They did so because they disagreed with Bramwell's assertion that as general he could pick his own successor. Wanting to free the Army from the rule of a powerful family they deposed Bramwell - a move that likely hastened his death. It begs the question whether nepotism still exists in the Army. Why is it that every general (with the exception of the Founder himself) was an officer's kid? Why do they ask you to list all your relatives who are officers on training college application forms, even today? I hope it is because they want to avoid new officers being supervised by their officer relations. I hope it's not meant to determine a candidates 'pedigree'. Anyway, a great book and a great story from our history that we can learn from today. I enjoyed the article promoting General Larson’s book about the 1929 leadership crisis. It’s not a well known story among Salvationists today. Doing some research on the story myself I noticed how the Winnipeg Free Press carried near daily news on the constitutional crisis. In fact nearly every news paper in the western world showed similar headlines. The extent to which the goings-on of the Army caught the eye of the public back then was truly phenomenal. Today it would be a PR Secretary’s dream (or nightmare) to have that amount of publicity.
While Bramwell Booth was physically unable to perform the duties of his generalship during his final few months, that is not why the High Council voted to depose him. They did so because they disagreed with Bramwell’s assertion that as general he could pick his own successor. Wanting to free the Army from the rule of a powerful family they deposed Bramwell – a move that likely hastened his death.
It begs the question whether nepotism still exists in the Army. Why is it that every general (with the exception of the Founder himself) was an officer’s kid? Why do they ask you to list all your relatives who are officers on training college application forms, even today? I hope it is because they want to avoid new officers being supervised by their officer relations. I hope it’s not meant to determine a candidates ‘pedigree’. Anyway, a great book and a great story from our history that we can learn from today.

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