Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-26
BlackIiSting London Beggars
to Separate Sheep From Goats
Special Correspondence Of The star.


LONDON. November Is 1911 :
VISITORS to London who have been
astonished and annoyed by the host
of whining and repulsive beggars which
infcsts the streets will be spared this
narrowing of their feelings i'm future, and
incidentally the professional down and
out" is going to have an uncommonly
hard time.
John Burns, president of the local gov
eminent board which has control OF the
official poor relief agencies. acting IN
conjunction with the heads of the metro
politan police and the maIagers of the
various private charities dealing with
the homeless and V. .ant class. has be-
gun the compiat ton of a beggars' black
list preliminary step to the co-ordi-
nation of all the public and private re-
lief agencies Already more than
thousand persons are the list and il
is being added to daily. When IL il
complete the police will begin vigorous
campaign against the professional beg
CARS and vat rants.
At present clever work shy can man
age pretty well in London. There are
dozens of places where he can get free
meals If he can't beg the price of them,
and he can sleep one night at the Sal
walton Army shelter, the next at tn.
Church Army tents. a third at some other
charitable agencys place and if he has u
he can spend the fourth night at the
casual ward of one of the warehouses.
Most professional warrants dod- the
casual wards when they can. because the
accommodation isn't exactly palatial and
they are compelled to do "A little work
in the morning TO pay for bed and break
fast.
Under the new scheme every patron OF
these free hotels will be reported every
morning to the new central authority set
up by the local government board. and
if a man is arrested for begging or sleep
ing out the police will be able TO present
his record to the magistrate and ii he
turns out to be a professional vagrant off
he will go to hard labor At present
magistrates hesitate TO send men to jail
for vatrancy, because the hard luck story
they tell may be true
In order that there may be no excuse
for genuinely hard-up people avoiding
The workhouse casual wards these insti-
tutionS are TO be leveled up to common
standard. hey will be clean and warm
and the food viii be of good quality. A
fair but not excessive amount of work
will be demanded in the morning, but
any one who feels physically unit for 1t
may appeal to the workhouse doctor for
exemption.
Early this year the London county coun-
Gil took a census. which showed that on
that particular night tncre were Drflt
homeless persons in London. Only 1901
of them We're In the casual wards, while
1,026 were sHelterless in the streets. and
the rest were in the ee shelters supplied
by charitable organizations. Most Of thu
preliminary work in connection with this
scheme has been done by the Local We'll
fare Association, whose secretary is \. il
Paterson.
AT present" said Mr. Paterson. any
destitute person has a legal right to claim
food and shelter at the casual wards OF
the warehouses;. but. owing partly TO ths
wretched condition OF some of them and
in the case of the beggar type horror
of work of any sort, that right IL claimed
only by small proportion of the totai
number OF persons requiring it, Ther-
is absolutely no effective method of dea|-
ing with these thousands of permanent
loafers and cadgers of both sexes, who
are an intoierable nuisance to the whole
public, themselves included. What "a"
are aiming at is to institute permanent
detention colonies, to which the police
should have the power to send all the
men they know to be irrecla ina NleS
That compulsory measure is Id al OF
the future, but We feel that II will he
the logical outcome of John Burns pres
ent step.
The many voluntary agencies which
assist the deserving cases are to receive
official recognition and support. The po-
lice will have orders to sort out all the
persons they find into different AIDES
and then send them to their respective
agencies. This is reform which cannot
be overrated, because every social re-
former knows only too well that the main
thing in dealing with the destitute Is to
get hold of them quickly before they sink
into the mire and become hopeless"