The New Student's Reference Work/Volunteers of America, The

Vol'unteers' of America, The, an organization, on the model of the army of the United States, was founded and incorporated in 1896 by General and Mrs. Ballington Booth for religious and philanthropic work akin to that done by the Salvation Army. The Volunteers seek affiliation with the churches and religious denominations of the country, and many Volunteers are practically engaged with the churches in their good and laudable work in most of the chief cities and larger towns of the Union, which are grouped by the organization into sectional or regimental divisions under the control and oversight of 30 principal staff-officers. The scope of the work undertaken by the Volunteers may be gathered from the fact that they maintain reading-rooms in the chief centers, whence Christian literature is distributed in prisons, hospitals, soldier's and children's homes, besides supplying these with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. They also maintain boys' fresh-air camps and girls' sewing classes, furnish hospitals with nurses and, where there is need, afford temporary financial relief. For this good work the Volunteers have organized and maintain philanthropic institutions in the principal cities of the United States, in addition to their chief centers of labor in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Denver, Chicago and San Francisco. See Salvation Army.