One of the all-time great organizations.

My father, God bless him, who knocked around the west, Mexico, and some of the rest of the world in the early part of the 20th century, had great affection for the Salvation Army. He said it was one of the few organizations that could be counted on to provide tangible help if anyone was down on his luck. It was one of only a few organizations to which he was willing to donate money.

The following passage from an article on sex trafficking indicates just what the Salvation Army was willing to do many years ago to provide tangible help to the vulnerable and exploited women of 19th century England:

However, the Salvation Army's efforts to help women and girls in prostitution did not stop there. In one of the most fascinating chapters its history, the Salvation Army participated in the execution of an undercover investigation into the trafficking of young girls for prostitution — a detailed account of which was published in July 1885 by the Pall Mall Gazette in a series of articles called, "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." At the heart of the series was the report of how W. T. Stead, Pall Mall Gazette editor, arranged for the purchase of a young girl, Elizabeth Armstrong, from her mother, with the mother's knowledge that the girl would ostensibly meet with an illicit and immoral fate. To say that the series created a national sensation is an understatement. The circulation of the Pall Mall Gazette rose from twelve thousand to over a million and there was near rioting in the streets as people fought to obtain copies of the paper.

What happened to the people involved in the purchase of the girl is a story in itself and is told in Ms. Lopez's article.

The Colonel never ceases to delight in calling attention to the inferior status of women in Islamic society. However, the article by Ms. Lopez makes clear that we have serious problems of our own vis-a-vis the exploitation of women.

These problems are a lot simpler and a lot more serious than problems of (a) pay equity, (b) abortion, and (c) salty speech overheard by "a woman" at the Naval Academy and complained of by a certain female Lt. Commander (with potentially diastrous consequences for the errant speaker of the words).

"Sexual Gulags. Facing and fighting sex trafficking." Q&A by Kathryn Jean Lopez, NationalReviewOnline, 1/26/06.