The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-01-17

The prevalence Of tramps is causing
deep anxiety throughout the country.
Every State in the Union. and almost
every city and town, are filed with un-
employed and apparently indolent men,
who wander from place to place and
live on the savings of the industrious.
We say "apparently'' indolent, because
many Of these men are victims of cir
cumstances and undoubtedly started on
their wanderings with real intention
of accepting the first remuneratiye
work that offered. Wandering begets
Incidence; sleeping in barns and living
by beggary and other precarious meth
DDS generates feeling of recklessness
in regard to life and property, which at
last disinclines the wanderer to settle
down, and makes him permanent
Arab.
The question, what to do with tramps
temporarily, is not difficult one. They
should be arrested wherever they make
their appearance, and put Immediately
at work in the service of the State
breaking stones. building walls, open
ing roads and erecting public institu-
tions of all kinds. The question how
to abolish the evil by preventing meri-
torious boys and industrious men from
becoming tramps is a much more
serious problem. The industrial theo-
ries and customs of this country seem
calculated to increase the army Of vag-
abonds. The root of the evil seems to
lie in the American custom of bringing
up boys to "live by their wits" This
country has abounded in opportunities
for profitable labor; it is rich in re-
sources, and, relying on these, whole
generations of boys have grown up to
be men without a trade or any manual
skill, and have made respectable fig
ure in life. This improvidence is not
fatal in I" flush times, when money and
work are plenty, when immigration is
active, mines are being opened, new
Territories organized, and speculative
enterprises are spreading in every di-
rection; but when the panic comes and
long financial stringency prevails, it is
sure to turn out crop OF men who
cannot support themselves. No other
country with half our industrial privi-
leges is so cursed with vagrants as this
is, because our boys have been taught
that it is not necessary for them to learn
a trade or become skilled i'll any de-
partment of art. They have been told
that they can g live by their wits;'' that
is, by cunning, barter and the various
intrigues which enter into speculations.
A very radical cure would be for ev-
cry American father to give his boys a
thorough trade, and to warn them to re-
linuuish the foolish notion of g living by
their WITS They ought to be taught not
only that they must live by hard work,
but that even willingness 70 work
hard at whatever turns up will not avail
them, but that unless they have skilled
labor Of some kind at their fingers
ends they will not be likely to remain
above want This lesson cannot be too
earnestly enforced. Nothing sur
prises foreigner in this country SO
much as to see hundreds of thousands
of boys and young men coming into
life with the impression that high de-
gree of skill in anything is unneces-
sary, and that shrewdness and tact can
be made to take the place of industry
that is in demand. The fact is that
even this country, with all its riches,
has no remunerative wages for any
thing but skilled labor--meaning by
"skilled labor the ability to do some one
thing, whether it be in mechanics, man.
ufactures, mining or farming, better
than it can be done by one who has not
spent some time in acquiring the art.
The reason why hundreds of thousands
of men are out of work to-day il not SO
much because they are naturally indo-
lent, as because they do not know how
to do anything for which the world is
willing to pay.
Of course there are tens of thousands
of skilled laborers out of work to-day,
and other tens of thousands living on
meager wages; but this is the inevita-
BILE result of hard times, and it does not
at all affect the fact that of our entire
population the skilled laborers are best
off, and that the army of houseless
nomads is not recruited from their
ranks. The first industrial lesson
which every prudent father should
teach his son is, "Do not try to live by
your wits, for they will probably fail
you when the pinch comes; but learn to
do some one thing that the world is
willing to pay for, and to do it well. y
N. Y. Graphic.