The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1907-09-27

o III
no" AT the same time they are less
able to deal with the question because
of the expense involved in the prose
cution and Imprisonment OF offenders.
If tramp drops off freight train at
some village it is much easier and
cheaper for the village constable TO
say Get out of town in II hours than
it is to put the tramp in jail and 1eed
him for ten days. This move on
order relieves the town of that one
tramp, but some other town gets him
and some other tramp is unloaded in
similar manner upon the town that
sent the first one away.
Recruits Constantly Come.
So it goes on interminably. Every
wear the number Of wanderers with
out available means of support is in
creased by new recruits. The habit of
idleness once contracted is rarely
abandoned except under cOmpulsion.
This compulsion has not been supplied
by separate communities; it Will
probably have to be brought about by
state or national action.
Railroad police departments have
been mentioned as probable cure for
vagrancy, but this goes only short
way. If tramp is arrested, but is
discharged in court, the lesson is OF
little value; he is then free to resume
his Occupation" This failure to pun
ish in most cases may be laid to the
matter of expense. Therefore, il is
suggested that the expense Of main
tanning prisoners, or at least part OF it,
be shared by the state.
Another method suggested Is en-
forced labor. Work" says James J.
Hill, of the Great Northern, is more
dreaded than all the other terrors of
the law. If every tramp were sen.
fenced, under a penalty of diet OF
bread and water, to work hard before
he was passed along, the end would be
in sight. The construction Of good
roads would be assisted by compelling
every tramp to break stone, wheel
dirt or go hungry. This, with a fine
enforcement of the criminal laws by
the local authorities, would probably
furnish a simple and satisfactory solu-
| &c hn VOC nrnh1nn1 "
Legislation Suggested.
Railroad policemen who have had
experience with ride stealers" are
quite as enthusiastic advocates of en-
forced labor as is Mr.. Hill. But,
they ask, how can we have enforced
labor for tramps when labor organiza-
lions have worked up powerful SEN
timent against giving work to prison
ers when honest men go idle?" This
opposition to letting prisoners do work
that wage-earners might do is regard
ed as a powerful obstacle to the EN-
forced labor" solution of the vagrancy
problem.
The superintendent Of police of one
of the large eastern lines says that the
greatest blow to vagrancy would be a
law passed by the legislature of every
state making it illegal to trespass on
the right of way of railroad At
present, in this state, the tramp can
not be punished for simply being on
the property of a railroad, though he
can be punished for Stealing rides"
Plans of the Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania railroad has set
out to perfect the organization of a
well-disciplined police department
Members of this special police force
will travel along the road, on both pas.
sengers and freight trains, and will
make it their special duty to look out
for trespassers. If they were aided by
state law making it misdemeanor
to trespass on the right Of way, I'm
doubtedly the number of tramps on
the Pennsylvania and other railroads
and the risks to employees and equip
ment would rapidly decrease.
Railroad officers say, however, that
they can accomplish little unless they
are able to work In harmony with the
authorities. It iss the object of the
charity organizations, in undertaking
the study of this problem, to bring
about such harmony. The results tc
society at large can be appreciated
when one learns that the number Of
Migrants is estimated as great as 500,
900. This great army, many members
of which are well able to work. is now
dead load to the country. The
quicker they can be assimilated-by
persuasion, by force or by the press
of mountaineering the producing
classes the better.