Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1907-08-19
DIR. RE|TMAN
TRAMPS' FRIEND
Favors Giving to
Them Square
NOW IN SANTA FE
Blames Railway ForIncrease
ofHoboes--- Wants to
Amend Vagrancy Law.

| Give the tramp a square deal and
| help him over the rough places This
| is the slogan of Dr. Ben l.. Retman,
Icf Chicago, Illinois. founder of the
Brotherhood Welfare Association, and
who gave the famous hobo banquet"
recently in the Windy City. He is
now in Santa Fe having come here
for the purpose of seeing Governor
Curry and having the latter exert his
influence in securing legislation fav-
orabe to the so-caled yagrants in
New Mexico.
i have been a tramp myself more
or less during the past fifteen years
and have Travelled around the world
several times" DR.. Reitman stated
this afternoon to representative OF
the New Mexican, who interviewed
him at the Palace Hotel II have
begged and panhandled, slept in box
es, in wagons and in freight cars, and
gone hungry many time, and know
the vagrancy situation | have been
arrested for vagrancy forty-one times
in America. In Germany was ar
rested because | did not have a pass.
port In Russia | was arrested for be.
ing a revolutionist and in France |
was arrested for being an anarchist.
Making Life Study Of Question.
, "All my life | have been dreaming
or hoping rather to have a tramp or
ganization a sort of an Institution
that will help vagrants. That is the
object of the Brotherhood Welfare As
sociation. As went around tramping
saw that apparently every mans
hand was against the tramp and that
no one actually knows the truth about
the bum the "hobo" and the
tramp" The modern conception of a
tramp is big, ugly fellow with an
adherence for work, with a scragly
beard on his face and hair unkempt
carrying club and tin can. Where
that originated don't know, probably
from such comic papers as Puck and
Judge
Most people have an idea that a
tramp is distinct species of man.
kind, different from any other But
that is a great mistake. He is an
ordinary human being. Most men are
made tramps because they lose their
jobs or when growing up are seized
with the "wanderlust' and run away
from home.
Average Tramp Not Thug.
"ln my study of tramps, and have
met thousands of them, I have found
that in majority of cases they were
boys who had run away from home
and were knocking about for the pur-
pose of seeing the world and not be-
cause of any antipathy for work. AS
for that vagrant who goes around
frightening women and stealing, why
he does not exist at all. OF 100 tramps
have seen in New Mexico jails most
of them were men and boys who had
become tramps through force Of cir
cumstance by being thrown out of
work.
DR.. Reitman has made life study
of the tramp question, and to better
famiiarize himself of the habits and
practices of the hobo class he has be-
come a wayfarer himself. He is in
teresting himself now particularly in
having amendments to the vagrancy
laws now in vogue in most of the
states. First of all he wants to have
the vagrancy law amended so that any
person sent to jail for vagrancy will
be placed in sanitary cell with toilet
facilities and given proper food and
shall be treated humanely He says
then they should be put to hard work
for which they should be allowed at
least so cents per day to be used in
buying clothes or purchasing rail-
road ticket at the termination of the
jail sentence.
Thousands Of Tramps Killed Yearly.
Another bill he would like to see
adopted in every State and Territory
is to have fine assessed against the
railroads for every tramp killed or in
jured in railroad accidents, or caught
stealing ride on the trains. He
blames the railroads for the alarming
increase in these itinerants. Every
year he said that statistics show that
5000 tramps are killed and $4,000
more injured or MANNED for life. In
other words, he declared that FIVE
times as many tramps are killed or in
jured as passengers and employees OF
railroads and without any financial re, g
sponsibility to the railroads.