Arizona republican., 1903-03-26
The Problem of the Vagrant.


 The bold hold-up of an electric car in the outskirts of Los Angeles. resulting in the murder of one of the passengers and the wounding of several others, has. apparently, at last aroused the authori- ties of that city to the necessity of get ting rid of the criminal element whic1 has been so prominent for several months. Throughout the past winter robberies. burglaries. and other crimes against life and property have been so frequent in Los Angeles as to attract the attention of the country. The po- lice have appeared to be helpless. Very rarely have the perpetrators of the worst crimes been apprehended. The latest crime, however, has provoked the public to such an extent that vigor ous dealing with the criminals may be looked for-for time, at least.
 The Los Angeles Times wisely points out that by going after the vagrants in the city the authorities will strike at the root of the evil.
 Some of them" it says, "are merely tramps and loafers, who occasionally terrify lone women at the back doors of residences, while others are desper- ate criminals, ready to do any deed of violence, even to the taking of human life. in order to procure few dollars and save themselves from the necessity of honest work We must treat these parasites much in the same manner as we do the smaller parasites that prey upon the trees of the orchard-make the conditions so unpleasant for them that they can no longer exist. We can not. perhaps, go so far as to confine them in an alright cell, and treat them with hydrocyanic gas, but we can at least give them a dose of another kind of medicine, which to many of them is scarcely less objectionable, namely, hard work"
 The Times is not too severe in its re- marks. There are periods. as every un- prejudiced person must admit. when the vagrant population must be re- garded with tolerance, and even with consideration-periods when the busi- ness of the country is depressed and employment cannot be had for all men. But even then there is always a sharp line Of cleavage between the honest workingman. who cannot find work. and the professional vagrant and crirn- inal classes. There is seldom occasion for the authorities to make a mistake. But in these times there is no excuse for any able bodied man to be idle. From one end of the country to the other there is a demand for men, and any man willing to do hard work can readily find employment. Right In Southern California, where the problem of dealing with vagrants has become pressing, there is so much difficulty in filling the demands for labor that Jap anese and Mexicans are being imported in large numbers. To be sure much of the work is of a character that is not attractive to Americans, but no honest man will hesitate to choose it rather than join the army of viciously idle.
 There being no excuse for idleness, there Is. accordingly. no excuse for handling the vagrant question gingerly. AS our Los Angeles contemporary sug- gests, the most wholesome remedy is the rock pile. In a minor degree the questions presented to the authorities of Los Angeles are pertinent in Phoe- nix. And if Los Angeles is made too uncomfortable for the criminal popula- tion it may be expected that there will be an undesirable immigration into this region. Unquestionably, the modern jail. light, sanitary and comfortable. is regarded as a very good boarding house by vagrants. To impose upon them a jail sentence is no punishment whatsoever. Hard work on the streets and on rock piles should be substituted for idle Imprisonment, and if this policy is followed out with vigor a long step will have been taken in ridding cities of the vagrant nuisance.