Evening journal., 1913-08-21
THURSDAY. AUG. 81. 1918.
AN rnlroRlAL ron nELAMARE LOAFERs.


- HIS is an editorial for loafers who cannot afford ID
/ LOAF and whose oafing is menace and an injury
10 society. If YOU be not such loafor and have no
idea Of becoming one there is strong likelihood
it will not interest you If you be loafer and
have left in you spark Of manhood which makes
industry thrift and self-rospect read it. 1t may do
you good
We are inspired to write it because we know there
arc in the state of Delaware thousands of loafers men
and women whites and negroes, and that there is
about them work that they capable OF doing and
that is crying be done. They are social parasites
who live upon the industry of Others clog the wheels
OF progress and ignore money making opportunities
which II seized would increase the wealth Of our
commonwealth by hundreds Of thousands of dollars.
such loafers arc peculiar to any particular sec
ton OF state. They TO be found in Will
mnston. in the towns and villages in all three
tics and in every farming and frutgroving district
Something must be done to evil that has
sumed such proportions TO become public danger.
The oafers must be forced TO work other elements
must be injected into society do the work that
those loafers refuse to do Incidentally,
munity must he made unpleasant for such loafers
that they will in solfdefense, realizing that at
last the Industrious elements in society have
adopted the policy that those who will not work shall
not and that those who will not contribute TO the
maintenance OF a home shall BOT know the comforts
Of a home
tive to the lengths TO which organized society may so
in dealing with its resident loafing class Through
vagrancy laws and otherwise IL has solved the question
what to do with the itincrant loafers who infes
country. Things have reached such pass in Della
with to resident loafors that the dominant
end all-powerul industrious section Of society should
lose time in dealing with those Dolawareans who
cannot afford to be idle and who refuse work when
work at living. is offered to them and inn
portunng them for acceptance and execution
Legally idlenoss is crime. That may not be known
generally by voluntary and INDECENT oafers but II
IS fact Blackstone. writer of the Commentaries on
the Laws Of England, and than whom there is no bet
ter authority in his hook on Public Wrongs:
'ldleness in any person whatsoever is also a high
ohense against the public economy In China IL is a
maxim that il there be man who does not work or a
woman that is idle in the empire somebody must suffer
cold and hunger; the produce of the lands not being
more thar sufficient with culture to maintain the
inhabitants; and therefore though the idle person NAV
shlit on the want from himself yet must in the end
tal somewhere The Court also of Areongus at
Athens punished dleness, and a right of exam
ng every citizen in manner he spent his time.
the intention Of which was that the Athenians know
Ing they were to give Of their occupations
should follow only such as we're laudable and that
there might be left such as lived by un-
lawful arts The civil law expelled all sturdy vagrants
from the city. and in own law all idle persons n,
such as wake on the night and sleep on the day and
haunt customable taverns, and ale-houses and rout
about and no man wot from whence they came mol
whittier they go, such more particularly de
scrihed by Statute II, Geo H. c. g. and divided int,
three classes idle and dsorderly persons rogues an,
vagsbonds. and incorrigble rogues-an these are Of
tenders against the good order. and bemishes in th
government Of any kingdom. They are therefore al
punished by the statute last mentioned that is to say
Idle and disordery persons with one months mprison
ment in the house of corrections rogues vagabond
with whipping and Imprisonment not exceeding si
months; and incorrgibe with the like disc
pline and confinement, not exceeding two years; IN
breach and escape from which confinement in one Z
an inferior class, ranks him ncorrigbe rogues
and In rogue (before incorrigible) makes him feo
and liable to he transported seven years Person
harboring vagrants liable to fine Of forty shi
lings and all brought upon the paris
thereby; in the same manner by our ancient law
whoever harbored any stranger for more than tu
nights was answerable to the public for any often,
that such his inmate might commit"
We think that even the loaters whom this editori
is directed will admit that there sound reaso
ing and in the foregoing quotation from one
the worlds greatest legal authorities
In view of the situation in Delaware it leads clear
TO the suggestion that society should invoke the
OF the criminal courts TO bring to book the thousan
of loafers who infest our commonwealth and who ha
ing no resources Of their prefer prey in id
ness upon the industry of others when the urban a
the rural sections Of Delaware crying for labor
offering adequate compensation for it,
We hold the theory that the healthy and abb