The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-27
THE TRAMP EVIL.

The Mayors of Pennsylvania Cities
towns and villages are endeavorlng TO
get together on some line of procedure
for discouraging the tramp evil, and rid
ding their sections Of the rowing, thieVlng'
shiftless persons who drift about over the
country according to the seasons, and live
upon the toll of honest workers. During
the winter the tramps have been in the
South or in jail, but now that warm
weather has set in they are scattering
over the North again. The pilgrimage OF
the tramps from Florida northward, or
from the northward to Florida, is just as
sure sign of the coming and going of the
tourist seasons as the running Of the pa
latial vestibuled trains by the railroads.
The tramp likes a mild climate, and he
will have it if he is not too lazy to walk
to it or to steal rides on the way
The Pennsylvania Mayors are taking
step in the right direction. Local efforts
to control the tramp merely send him to
a nearby community; they do not strike
at the root of the evil. They may afford
the tramp a little inconvenience, but not
enough to make him work for his grub.
Before the nuisance can be controlled
there will have to be concerted action
against it, not only in Pennsylvania, but
in the other states as well. When the
tramp learns there is nowhere that
he can turn his footsteps that he will not
find constable awaiting him, to send
IL to nil 70 VVOrE the
public highway, he will begin to think
seriously of mending his ways. When he
discovers that he must work, or starve,
he will be apt to reach the very sensible
conclusion that it is better to work for
himself than for the public.
1t is only within the past half-century
that the tramp problem has existed IN
this country: but during that time it has
grown great. There are now many thou
sands of the genus prowling, robbing, as
saulting and burning in all of the states.
Their laziness and criminality is prove
bal and monumental. Kansas farmers
are now advertising for farm laborers for
the wheat harvest, at 81 per day, but no
tramps are applying. They do not want
work They proceed upon the principle
that the world owes them a living, and
if they cannot get it by begging they will
steal It, And in this they are to a
considerable degree encouraged by those
who do not like to turn any one hungry
away from their doors. In short, there
is too much leniency towards the tramp;
and this considerateness is often repaid
with raids upon hen roosts and smoke
houses, or assaults upon women and chill
dren when the farmer husbands and
brothers are away in the fields.
The tramp evil is one that requires he
roic treatment, for it is growing. At iso-
lated homes about the only effective pre-
ventive is the shotgun and the dog, ac-
companied by the stony-hearted determin-
alton that the tramp shall have no food
except such as he renders an equivalent
in labor for. In municipalities the off,
GERS of the law ought to have the author
ity-and be required to use ito imme-
diately grab all tramps and put them to
work in the chaingang, the workhouse, on
the highways or elsewhere. Nearly all of
them are able-bodied. If they can earn
their own livelihood but won't do it be-
cause they are too lazy, they ought TO
be made to do it.