Throughout the world today there are countless friends of The Salvation Army who take for granted the need for and effectiveness of its work because they have confidence in its basic spiritual motives. Nowhere is this more true than in America. Our generous friends frequently approve and applaud our methods and activities without actually knowing much about them. We prefer, however, that loyalty to and support of The Salvation Army be predicated on full knowledge of what it is and What its purposes are, and on some familiarity with the wide range of its religious and humanitarian services. Thus, when Mr. Harry Edward Neal expressed to us his interest in telling the story of The Salvation Army through the stories of the men and women who wear the familiar caps and bonnets, and the stories of human beings helped by this Army, we quickly agreed that this might be a very effective way to give our friends a clear, sharp, three-dimensional picture of the structure and program of our organization. Mr. Neal confined his close-range observation and personal interview research to our New York City operations, but the pattern of service traced out in the following pages is repeated, in part or in toto, in nearly every community across our coun try in which The Salvation Army is established.