The herald., 1895-06-14
FRIDAY. JUNE u, 1903.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO THINK

reporter OF the Los Angeles Herald
disguised himself last week as tramp
and was arrested, convicted of poverty,
thrown into the city prison and was put
to work in the chaingang. he is now
describing what he saw, in series of
articles for The Herald, and his account
of the way tramps are treated would make
a man with a cork leg for heart tremb Bile
with Indignation. The monopolization
of natural opportunities isimakingltramp
by the thousand every year. ana unle-s
there is change IN our laws and the num-
ber of homeless, hapless wanderers great
ly diminished, some crank like Altgel,l of
Illinois will get following shortly that
will test the power of the federal govern
ment to control. Now is the time for the
well-to-do to do some solid thinking.
What is the cause of the uneqal distribu-
ton of wealth in the United states?
Why is it that we have millions of tramps
ard q few hundred millionaires? The
orators on the Fourth of July should pay
some attention to the solution of this
pro blem and allow the eagle to have
rest.-Visalia Times.
The foregoing is one of the many eS-
pressions of sym pathy with The Herald
in its work of exposing the city jail and
chaln-gang inlquities. As the Times
says, now is the time for the "well-to. do
to do some solid thinking. The tramp
is here. There are two kinds of him
the voluntary and the involuntary-bu
they both come from the same root and
that root is enforced ldeness. As we
have said before, out of the involuntary
tramp has /. been evolved the voluntary
tramp. AS an original proposition men
are opposed to the plane of trampdom.
1t can hardly be argued that any consid-
cradle percentage of men prefer dining on
scraps at the back door, sleeping on the
lee side of a fence or under a haystack,
and appareling themselves in fragments
OF colthins, to eating decently, resting
in comfortable beds and wearing respect
able clothing.
The allurements Of the Nomadic life
led by the tramp as we know him are
hardly sufficiently enticing to offset the
pleasures of a civilized existence. And
when the latter can be obtained by q
reasonable amount of labor, it vii
hardly be contended by fair-minded peo-
pie at least, that the average man will de-
cline to make the exchange, unless the
demoralizing poverty that is the ine-
vita5le concomitaEt of continuous idle
ness shall have destroyed his ambition
and enervated his character. The tramr
increases in the same ratio that oppor-
tunities tor employment that would buy
the essentials of existence decrease. This
is an indisputable fact that cannot be
impaired by any amount of skepticism
or cynicism. Where employment is easy
to get, tramps are seldom found. 1t is
from the ranks of the unemployed that
the army OF tramps is recruited. The
larger the ranks OF the former, the easier
it is to recruit for the latter The de-
mands of nature upon the man out of
job are practically the same as those
drawn on the man IN the possession of
employment. When the former has ex-
hausted his own funds and credit gives
out, he borrows from friends. When the
last resort fails he moves to another
town, and when the effort to obtain en-
ployment proves fruitless. having no
friends in the new place he borrows
from strangers-that is, he strikes the
passer by for the price of meal" |
may be u minister of the Master VINO
taught the virtue OF charity, or it NAV be
common, ordinary mortal he accosts :.
it is immaterial, the moment he solicits
funds from strangers he becomes a
tramp, "a hobo. The transition from the
position OF a specting, indepen-
dent citizen to that of mendicant ard
a wanderer may not be sudden; it NAV
be by degrees, and yet it may he swift.
1t is easy TO float down the stream of err
cumstances. Under present social con-
ditions any man with naught but his
labor as capital may rcach the level OF
the tramp without fairly realizing the
descent. When he has reached this friend
less fundless, degenerate sphere, but
three avenues of escape from munger and
nakedness open to hIm-beggarv, theft
and suicide.
Unfortunately for society, and possibly
for himself, he is liable to resort to one
OF the first two, both OF which with un-
erring certainty leads to the jail and the
chaingang. and the destruction of once
promising pc, sonality is complete. The
causes that produce involuntary idleness.
with its accom- paHying poverty, are the
causes that produce anarchy. Where
there is prosperity for the mass of the
people-and prosperity does not mean a
bare existence and uncertain resource for
the futuer-there can be no anarchy. No
one can intelligently claim that the
means nature has provided for the sus.
tenance OF the race are inadeouate for
the purpose, that the many want because
there are too many. The truth is that
but small portion OF the world given us
for home is utilized to full ADVANTAGE
while the inventive genius of mankind
has facilitated production to the point
that the labor OF one man can fully pro-
vide for the wants OF score. There /,
plenty OF room at the "Father's table 10,
all OF his children" but somehow and b,
some means apparently unknown tc
those barred out, the room is not filed
The reason for this inability on the par
of the children Of Want TO live in house
of Have is what the weli-to.do citizer
should endearer &c discover, And b:
should endeavor without delay. Their,
could be no grander theme for Fourth Of