The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-03-25
HE Is ONLY A TRAMP
The Genesis Of the Genus, aud Progress
Of the DeVelOpment...Out Of a JOb...
Hunting Work.
His Existence Cannot Be IgnOred...A
HindranCe to Organized LabOr...
Reform Required.

What is he-this tramp that comes
to the back dool and asks for breadP
Answer--He is ut first but man who
has "lost his job" Perhaps new
machine displaces him; maybe cut in
wages. a gang of men who could live
on less than he cOuld-it does not
matter. He divides his last few doll us
with his family, and starts out wearing
II decent suit, to "hunt work" What
is he to doP He finds other industries
have laid off some of their men, or
employed cheaper labor His money
is gone; he finally comes to the point
OF asking for something to eat, and
how YEARLY he waits, souches about,
passes and re-passes, hesitates, and at
last steals cautiously up to the door
after dark. Only those who have ex-
perienced it can tell what it is TO sleep
under the open sky, with no toilet con-
veniences and no money for laundry
work. Responsibility fades from his
appearance gradually like the color
from q long exposed garment. His
spirit becomes broken, his heart har-
dened by repeated denials and rebutfs.
He has heard that his family has sep.
arated, his children in factories or in
the poor house, his wife living on
charity. He learns to be rough and
savage, grows reckless, takes To drink,
and at last to hate work. would not
accept work for more than two or three
daysif he cOuld--if he escapes prison
he does well; and this is the life Of not
IL solitary man from a multitude, but
OF thousands.
Our present system creates such men
day by day. What are you dong to
better our present syst9mP The mo-
nopoly of national resources, which
leaves the disinherited nothing to offer
for chance to live, but their labor,
with an ever decreasing demand for
it--since science and invention applied
to labOr-saying machinery are like
everything else, monOpolized by few
throws upon society an eyerincreas-
ing army Of men, for whose labor there
is no demand, aud who have no place,
no home no rights. These classes can
not be much longer ignored. They
exist; they do not come into exstance
voluntarily; and in the future discus
sions of social problems, they must be
considered. Even many reformers take
no account Of their existence. They
interfere regularly in every demand
for better wages and fewer hours. with
their hunger and desperation; they
seem TO abolish organized labor each
time, as though unawares Of such an
army.
The tramp then becomes u "scab, :"
scarcely human being and worthy Of
no consideration.
believe that idle men will play an
important part in the coming change.
They are growing menace now, un-
consciously to themselves. They are
not the result of temp orary "hard
times" not the result of two much
immigration, for every country casts
them aside as drift-wOOd; not alone
because Of individual laziness--fOr n
cerain number are always out. They
constitute an inexhaUstible source for
capital to draw from and play against
organized labor.
We must have better system Of
society, system in which At least JUS
tice prevails. Stop and thing over this
article. DO not allow Others TO think
for you. For the art Of man clips the
wing Of the bird to make ii obedient
to his will.-The Railroad Trainmen's
Journal.