Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-12-13
Is Poverty a Cr,meg

On December 4th Governor Lewell-
ing ISSUED the following circular. ad-
dressed to the various police boards in
the cities of Kansas. It was unexpect-
ed and marks an epoch in our history
when a mans privileges as an Ameri-
can citizen is not defined by his clothes
or his financial condition.
TO all Boards of Police Commissioners:
EXECUTIVE CIRCULAR.]
In the reign of Elizabeth, the highways were
filed with the throngs of the unemployed poor,
who were made to move on" and were some
times brutally whipped. sometimes summarily
hanged, as sturdy Migrants or '1ncorrigible
vagabonds." In France. just previous to the
revolution, the punishment of being poor and
out of work was. for the first ofFense. a term Of
years in the galleys, for the second offense,
the galleys for life. In this country the mo-
nopoly of labor saving machinery and!its devo-
ton to selfish instead of social use, have rom
dered more and more human beings super
tiuous, until we have standing army of the
unemployed numbering even in the most pros
porous times, not less than 1,0O0OO0 able
bodied men; yet, until recently 1t was the pre-
vaiiing notion, as it is yet the notion of all but
the work people themselves and those of other
classes given TO thinking that whatsoever, being
able bodied and willing to work can always
find work to do, and section 57l of the general
statutes of 1859 is disgraceful reminder how
savage even in Kansas has been our treatment
of the most unhappy of our human brothers
The man out of work and penniless is. by
this legislation, classed with ''conflo ence men,.
Under this statute and city ordinances of sim
liar import, thousands of men, guilty of no
crime but poverty, intent upon no crime but
that of seeking employment, have Ianguished
in the city prisons of Kansas or performed un-
requited toll on crock piles as municipal
slaves, because ignorance of economic condi-
tions had made us cruel. The victims have
been the poor and humble for whom police
courts are courts of the last resort-they can
not give bond and appeal. They have been
UNDECIDED and uncared for by the busy world
which wastes no time visiting prisoners in Jail
They have been too poor to litigate with their
OpLressors, and thus no voice from this under
world of human woe has ever reached the ear
of the appellate court, because it was nobody's
business to be his brothers keeper.
But those who sit in the seats of power are
bound by the highest obligation t. especially
regard the cause OF the oppressed and helpless
poor. The first duty of the government is to
the weak. Power becomes fiendish if it be not
the protector and sure reliance of the friend
less, to whose complaints all other ears are
duh. 1t is my duty ITO see that the laws are
faithfully executed" and among those laws is
the constitutional provision that no instrll-
mentality of the state shall deny to any per-
son within its Jurisdiction the equal protection
of the laws And who needs to be told that
equal protection of the laws does not prevail
where this inhuman vagrancy law is enforced!
1t separates them into two distinct classes,
differentiated as those who are penniless and
those who are not, and declare the former
criminals. Only the latter are entitled to the
liberty guaranteed by the constitution. To be
found In u city without some visible means
of support or legitimate business" is the I'M
voluntary condition of some millions at this
moment, and we proceed to punish them for
being victims of conditions which we, as a
people, have forced upon them.
l have noticed in police court reports that
sleeping in a box car is among the varieties
! of this heinOus crime of being poor. Some pc.
lice judges have usurped sovereign power
not permitted the highest functionaries of the
states or of the nation, and victims of the in.
dustrial conditions have been peremptorily
| ordered to leave town.
The right to go freely from place to place in
search OF employment, or even in obedience
| of a mere whim is part of that personalii liberty
| guaranteed by the constitution of the United
| States to every human being on American
| soil If voluntary idleness is not forbidden: II
| Diogenes prefer poverty; if a Columbus
! choose hunger and the discovery of new race
rather than seek personal comfort by engaging
in some legitimate business" l am aware Oh
no power in the legislature or in city councils
| to deny him the right to seek happiness i'm Inf!
own way, so long as he harms no other, rich OF
poor; but let simple poverty cease 20 be
| crime.
In some cities it is provided by ordinance
thatlf police court fines are notpaid or secured
the cuprit shall be compelled to work out the
amount as a municipal slave; and rock piles
and bull pens are provided for the enforce
ment of these ordinances. And so it appear.
that this slavery is not imposed as a punish
ment, but solely as a means of collecting
| debt.
Such city ordinances are in fragrant viola
ton OF constitutional prohibition. The ''rocl
pile" and the bull pen" have only been uset
in degrading the friendless and poor. Let thes
relics of the debased auction block era cease Il
| dlsSrdce Jce cltlee OF Kansas, and let the dawl
| of Christmas day find the rock pile" and tn
"bull PEN and the crime of being homeless
and poor. obsolete in all the cities of Kansa
governed by the metropolitan police act.
1t is confidently expected that their own re
gard for constitutional liberty and their human
impulses will induce police commissioners +
carry out the spirit as well as the letter of tn
foregoing suggestions. L. ID. LEwELLING,
Governor.