Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-01-29
aAistellanruu5 8eading.
NO PLACE FOR TRAMPS.
How Switzerland Handles Her Unem- =
nIoved and Reforms Them.

ing that any man who Is out or WorK
must be helped to find work, and this
not so much for his own sake as for
the sake of the whole communicate
guard against his being cause of eX-
pense TO it instead IF being a source of
income.
There is. however, an equally strong
feeling that when the work is found
the man must, if necessary for his
own sake as we'll as the sake of the
community, be made to do it; to do 1t
WELL too
Practically everywhere in Switzer-
land. says the Nineteenth Century,
while it is held to be the duty of the
authorities to stand by the genuine
work seeker and help him, 1t is held to
be their duty also to mete out punish
ment to the work shirker and force
him to earn his daily bread before he
eats it.
No liberation is shown to the loaf
er, for he is regarded as one who
wishes to prey on his fellows and take
money out of the common purse While
putting none into it. On the other
hand, what can be done is done, and
gladly, to guard decent men from all
danger of becoming loafers through
mischance or misfortune.
In this country a man may deliber-
ately throw up one job and without
ever making any effort to find anoth-
he in
the unemployed, steadily deteriorating
all the time into an unemployable.
Meanwhile no one has the right to say
him yea or nay unless he applies for
poor relief.
In Switzerland, however, it is other
wise There is no resorting to work.
houses as to hotels there; no wander
ing around the countryside eXtorting
aims while pretending to look for work.
For begging is a crime and so Is va
grancy: and in some cantons the po-
lice receive a special fee for every beg
gar or vagrant they arrest.
If a man is out Of work there he
must try to find work, for if he does
not, the authorities Of the district
where he has a settlement will find 1t
for him, and of a kind perhaps not at
all to his taste-tiring and badly paid.
He cannot refuse to do 1t, for If he
does he may be packed off straight to
penal workhouse, an institution
where military discipline prevails and
where every inmate is made to work
to the full extent of his strength, re-
ceiving in return board and lodging,
with wages of from penny to three
pence a day.
When once he is there, there he
must stay until the authorities decree
that he shall depart; for as penal
workhouse is practically prison, he
cannot take his own discharge, and
the police are always on the alert to
prevent his running away. No matter
how long his sojourn lasts, however
it does not cost the community sim
gle penny for in Switzerland these Pc
nal institutions are Self-supporting.
Some of them, indeed, are said TO be
a regular source of income to the can
tons to which they belong.
There is no classing Of the unem-
ployed by casualty or misfortune with
the unemployed by laziness or miscon-
duct there: no melting out to them Of
the same measure. On the contrary,
considerable trouble is taken to dis
tinguish between the two classes, so
that each may be dealt with accord
ing to it's merits The man who is
cut of work through his own fault and
because he does not wish to be in work
is treated as q criminal and sent as a
prisoner to a penal institutions; while
the man who is out of work In spite
of his earnest endeavor TO be in work
is helped without being subjected to-
humiliation.
1t is much more easy there, however,
than it is here, it must be admitted,
to distinguish between employed
and unemployed as there every work
ingman has his papers, /. e., documents
which are given to him by the author
tiles of the district where he has his
settlement and which contain full In
formation as to where and by whom
he has been employed in the course
of his life.
Then relief in kind stations, i. e.,
casual wards organized on philanthropy
ic lines, are now maintained in every
part of industrial Switzerland for the
exclusive use of the respectable un-
employed and drunkards, criminals
and loafers are never allowed to cross
the threshold Of these places. No one
is admitted to q Swiss relief in kind
stations unless his papers show that
he has been in regular work within the
previous three months and out Of
work at least five days; unless they
show also that neither the police nor
his own district authorities have any
reason for looking on him aSkance. He
who is admitted, however, is made
welcome and is treated with consider
alton as a respectable man whom mis-
fortune has befallen.
Let men but relax their efforts and
show signs of a willingness TO remain
without work and they are at once
thrown on their own resources. The
police, who are in close cooperation
with the station officials, always keep
sharp watch on the unemployed, es
pecially on such as are sojourning in
these refugees. and if they find them
refusing work when it is offered under
reasonable conditions or accepting it
and losing through carelessness, laZi-
ness of any other fault of their own,
or lounging by the waysde or in pub
lie houses instead Of betaking them
selves where they have been told
there is chance Of job, the fact
is reported, with the result that there
is made on their papers a note which
prevents their ever again crossing the
threshold Of any station. At the end
of three months from the day they