The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-07-10

nlBH CIlhlS puuIsudDle uy LII ilSoA-
ment in the states prison for at least
one year.
As tramp he is denied the right of
ordinary citizens.
Notwithstanding the constitution de.
clares that no person shall be deprived |
of life; liberty or property without due
process of law, the Ohio idea is that
the destitute stranger may be appre-
hended, and deprived of his liberty
without any process whatever, and by
the veriest vagabond who may detect
him asking for bread, water or shelter.
The word of God commands that. "1f
there be among you poor man with
in any of the gates of the land, thou
shalt not harden thine heart nor shut
thine hand from the poor brother, but
thou shalt open thy hand wide unto
him and shall surely lend him suffi-
cient for his need"
But the Ohio idea is, if poor man
is found at the pump within the gates
slaking his thirst and is told to "git,"
and he does not drop the gourd and
leave Immediately, he shall be incarce-
rated in the states prison year or
more.
Christianity commands that we
take the stranger in, and the Ohio
idea is that "insignifes in the peniten-
tiary.
Charity is extrolled as the greatest of
Christian virtues, but to ask it in o hio
is a hineous crime.
The tramp laws that are being enac
ted throughout the country will hard
ly afford the safety to society which
their authors anticipate. The tramp
is not to hlame for being such. His
hard lot has been forced upon him by
the very men who now pronounce it
crime, and him felon. The num-
ber of these victims are daily multi
plying, and the hardness of their lot is
intensifying, and it is only a question
of time when the worm May turn and
sting to death the heel that is pressing
upon it. Just and humane laws are
far more conducive to public safety
than unjust and cruel ones. Statutes
may make poverty crime, but they
cannot make tramp an idiot. Life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness are
guaranteed to every man. No man so
poor but in America, at least, he un-
derstands this. If he is destitute, it is
presumptive evidence that he has rob-
bed no one. If through strict honesty
he has become destitute, and that des-
titution is made felony with pen
atty attached, No less severe than in
flicted upon the burglar and the high
wayman, he will soon learn not to ask
for charity but to take it by force or
stealth.
If asking for crust of bread with
the chance Of being denied, is made by
law crime equal to that of robbing
and carrying off the larder, the Ohio
tramp will most likely abandon the
former and adopt the latter course, as
promising better results, less liable to
detection, and with no severe penalty
attached if detected and convicted. If
the Legislature of the tramp law states
were desirous of inaugnrating terror
ism, brigandism, outlawry, and a So
cial condition which nothing but a
military despotism could prevent from
breaking out into anarchy and open
revolt, they could have not hit on
better method than their inhuman,
unjust, and anti Christian statutes ma
king poverty crime, and every object
of charity felon. Such laws are re-
voting to every insrinct of humanity,
demoralizing in their tendency, and
will increase in ten fold intensity the
very evil they were intending to re-
move.