The San Francisco call., 1906-03-25
WILL TACKLE
TRAMP PROBLEM
John Burns of the British
Cabinet Declares War
on Robust Vagabonds
MUST WORK OR SUFFER
Weary Willie Is Not Wanted
in England and His
Days There Are Numbered
MUST WORK OR SUFFER
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LONDON, March z4.-Jo ohn Burns, tne
stalwart representative of labor in the
Cabinet and the president of the Local
Government Board, is going to tackle
the tramp He Is going to make him
1 work or make his life burden to him,
| Under his supervision a departmental
committee has been studying the Weary
Willie and his ways for some time and
| has Just issued a report suggesting
practical method of improving him OF
| the face of the earth. As the tramp
| question is always an acute one In
| America, a fairly full outline of the
scheme may be of interest to American
readers.
The basis of it lies in exercising
| judieious discrimination between the
/ robust vagabonds who infest the high
ways and whine at back doors in towns
and cities and the honest workmen who
are driven to go ION tramp" by mis-
1 fortune. The former are to be placed
| in labor colonies, where they Will be
compelled to submit TO the primal law,
| He that will not work neither shall ne
| eat" The latter, instead of being
treated as suspicious characters and
criminals, are to be aided in their
search for work. The committee pro-
poses:
A new and harder regime under po-
lice control instead of the poor law
for the casual;
| preferential treatment and real as
sistance' for the bona fide worker when
he takes the road; and
For habitual Migrants the establish
ment of walled-in labor colonies.
LABOR COLONIES.
Magistrates are to be empowered TO
| send habitual vagrants to labor colonies
/ for from six months to three years
| They will bear a considerable resem-
blanee to the Chinese compounds in
South Africa, which have been so much
discussed lately. Certainly they would
not become popular institutions with
professional tramps. There will be no
| eoddling in them. For the occupants
! a scientific subsistence dietary has been
drawn up which, it is estimated, VIII
cost only SO cents a head per week 1t
! is as follows:
Breakfast and supper-Bfead, eight
ounces; cocoa (made with cocoa husk),
one pint
Dinners for week:
Two days-Bread, eight ounces; pea or
ientil soup, one pint.
Two days-Bread, six ounces; cheese,
two ounces; potatoes fcooked), six ounces.
Two days-Bread, two ounces; broth, one
pint; suet pudding, twelve ounces
one day-Bread eight ounces; stew. one
pint.
Salt for table-one ounce per five men
/ daily.
1t is proposed to make the labor colonies
]. self-supporting. The labor is not to be re-
stricted to agricultural work only, for
that might not pay and might be inter-
| rupted by inelement weather. The inmates
| will be given opportunities for earning
| small sums. and by demonstrating that
| they have conquered the shirk-woFk habit
| and the born tired feeling may obtain an
! early release from the colony-or com
! pound.
The casual vagrants'-the class that
1 have not yet become habitual loafers ana
will do an occasional honest days work
| will be detained for two days and VIII re-
| ceive a more generous diet, but will have
| to work for their meals. On their dis
charge they will be given sufficient food
/ for midday meal
GENUINE WORKERS.
The genuine worker tramping is to be
granted way book by the police giving
/ his personal description his usual trade,
1 his reasons for wishing to travel and his
proposed destination, and containing his
| signature and possibly his finger prints
| for the purpose of testing identification.
1t will contain spaces on which can De
stamped the name of each casual ward
visited
| s.With this book" says the committee.
| 1.-THE man would go to the casual ward
and be entitled TO a nights lodging, sup
per and breakfast, and after performing
| two hours work to help to pay for his
food and lodging he should be free to leave
1.-The name ofsthe next ward on the di-
rect line of his route should be entered in
] the book and if he arrived at that place
! he should be treated in the same manner.
For him there should practically be
no detention and he should generally
| have better treatment and accommoda-
| tion than the ordinary vagrants and be
kept as far as possible apart from
! them And it should be open to him to
remain at the ward for another night if
| he desires a rest on his journey
These books will enable the public
| to discriminate between their poses
sors-the work seekers and the horde
of yagabonds who simply roam about
the country to escape work and live by
petty thefts and mendicaney. That in
! turn will operate to check the indis-
criminate giving of aims which, more
than anything else, creates vagrancy.
Sir Eric Buchanan. who has made
study of the question, estimates that in
London alone 100000 is given away
every year to beggars
THE GERMAN METHOD.
The proposed plan of dealing with
yagraney is in its essential features
similar to that which has proved so
! successful in Germany and Denmark.
The German workers right to tramp"
in search of work is recognized by the
State, and he has also the right to de-
mand relief on his travels when he is
without means. But by the German
penal code vagabonds, beggars and
| those who refuse offers of work which
they could perform can be Imprisoned
or fined or compelled to work in state
| institutions, where they are carefully
separated from free laborers.
In Denmark there is a special class
| of penal workhouse for the professional
vagrant When he is caught he must
earn his dinner every day before he eats
it, and it is not luxurious meal even
! then. He is further confined in this
institution for a period of six months
and If by that time he does not show
signs of amendment he can be placed
under yet severer regime. The mere
existence of the penal workhouses, it
| has been found, is sufficient to put a
j ston 70 fhe yagrant nuisance, thus set