Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-07


several years, the hobo is back again.
Reports from all over the country show
that the army of men which moves across
the country as the unlimited guests of the
railroads and the public is once more mo-
bilizng. Again is heard the request at the
back door for handout The water tank has
again become the waiting room for these
non-paying passengers, and its strange col
lection of cabalistic writings, which are of
so much value to the wandering fraternity,
is being renewed Theft of freight is again
mounting to an enormous figure, jails and
warehouses are filling up, petty offenses
are on the increase
Popular opinion in this country has al
ways held the tramp to be man who would
not work under any circumstances. This
theory was dealt a blow by the fact that
during the war the army and industry seems
to have absorbed nearly all of the tramps,
and that they have reappeared only with
the return of hard times. The tramp then,
must be a man who will and can work if
the inducements are strong enough, but who
prefers a wandering life when employment
is hard to get or unremunerative.
The tramp is a large and significant prob
N which has had very little study. The
size of it you can realize when you are told
that several different estimates made by Of
ficials of railways placed the number Of
tramps in this country before the war at
half million. This estimate is based on the
number of Migrants who are killed every
year stealing rides on the railroads. More
warrants are killed this way in a normal
year than trainmen and passengers put to-
gether. In one year it was estimated that
these Migrants cost the railroads $780,
600. This included what was paid for pro-
lection from them, and the thefts of freight
which were attributed to them. For tramps
often get food as we'll as transportation from
the railroads. They break into shipments of
foodstuffs and take what they can eat or
carry away, often making it impossible for
the railroads to deliver a case of canned
goods, for instance, although perhaps only
few cans have been stolen.
Varieties Of Migrants
The estimate of half million which the
railroads place upon the normal tramp army
of America does not, of course, include only
tramps properly SO-called. 1t includes all
those who steal rides the railroads.
Among these is a small number of men who
are ordinarily steady workers, but are tenn
porarily out of funds and ride the break
beams or the blind baggages to get to some
new Job. One young man, Tor example, WHO
was a native of far western state and
worked his way through college, employed
this method of crossing the continent four
times a year.
Such cases are few. Besides the true
tramps, the greater number of these va
grants belong to the class of seasonal work
ers. The tramps and the seasonal workers
are of close kin. Many man drifts into
tramping by way of seasonal work, and the
tramp may occasionally become a seasonal
worker.
The seasonal workers are large and
well defined class. They make their liVlngs
at such work as cutting ice and telling tim
Der in the winter and working on lake boats
and in the harvest fields in the summer.
When not employed these men congregate
in large cities, such as Chicago, where there
are great numbers of cheap lodging houses
that cater to them. They soon learn to live
for year on the earnings of a few months,
and will not take aII-time employment if
they can get it unless actually starving. A
man who is used to making living out of
the harvest fields in the summer has been
known to refuse work at iCe-cutting in the
winter on the ground that he did not need
the money and would be merely taking
bread out of the mouth of some habitual
winter worker.
The lives of these men lack all comfort
and stability, but they have change, adven-
ture and leisure. Hence it is comprehensive
that men of a certain type come to prefer
it. Freedom and wandering are the things