Evening star., 1932-08-12
HORDES OF YOUTHS
LEAD LIFE OF HOBO
Victims of Unemployment
Leave Homes to Avoid
Sharing in Charity.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

There are actually hundreds OF
thousands of homeless. destitute boys,
under 81, wandering about the coun-
try-how many, nobody knows. and
the welfare organizations are not yet
awake to the serious situation.
They are not the traditional scum.
the hobo or tramp glorified with the
vagabond title knights of the Road"
or the runaway boy of adventurous
youth. They are mostly those who
normally would be at work or in
school. They are victims of unem-
plOyment and depression.
MANY of them are young men-from
substantial American families-just
out of high school or college, who have
been unable to find job. Many OF
them are bumming it because sheer
pride will not permit them to sit idle
at home. Quite a few have taken to
the road because support for the whole
family came from relief agency and
was wholly inadequate to feed the
younger brothers and sisters.
Breeds Breakdown.
Their present life is precarious.
hazardous and breeds breakdown OF
the morale of American manhood.
In the face of this wandering boy
problem that transcends anything the
country has yet known. the State
vagrancy laws have broken down. the
transportation agreement between
various welfare organizations has been
wiped out by lack of funds before 1t
got well started, communities cannot
pay the costs of transportation to the
place of established responsibility and
funds are lacking even to feed and
bunk the transient for more than one
meal or one night.
So a system of passing on" has
grown up, with local police hurrying
the wanderer out of town, and the
railroad police endeavoring to keep the
boys from hopping trains.
This problem is brought to public at
tention by the Children's Bureau Of the
United States Department of Labor,
which has been making survey since
last Spring 1t has been considered in
formally by a Steering Committee" OF
representatives of national agencies in
terested in the transient problem, which
grew out of the Presidents organization
for unemployment relief. 1t will be
presented TO many national agencies
with view to promoting the develop
ment of more adequate community pro-
grams through affiliated local agencies
or branches.
Bad as the homeless boy problem now
is. it is growing worse, for as Fall comes
on this army of bushwhackers will mi
CRATE toward Florida, the Gulf States,
the Southwest and California, placing a
heavy burden upon many small COM
munities that cannot care for their own
destitute. Men and boys swarm on
every freight train in such numbers
that the railroad police are helpless to
keep them off.
Hundreds Are Reported.
Along the Southern Pacific route
many small towns in Texas, New Mex
leo and Arizona reported the passing
daily of some 200 men and boys during
the Winter and Spring. The Santa Fe
at Albuquerque averaged rs day.
From September /, 1881, to April 30,
1882, the Southern Pacific, with 9,l30
miles of track, recorded 416,9l5 tres
passers elected, which falls far short of
the total, since all railroad police testi-
fly that only a portion of those beating
their way on freights ever comes to the
attention of officers.
In Kansas City, railroad officials in
May stated that a conservative esti-
mate of the men and boys riding
freights through the city at that time
was l,5O0 per day. III Is estimated ~
TO 25 per cent of these are under 81,
verified by sample counts.
Men in charge of plant quarantine
work on the principal highway enter
ing California made actual counts of
hltch-hiking boys under 81 entering
that State during April and May, with
the number averaging $50 per week at
each of three points.
There were 1929 different boys under
81 fed and lodged by the Volunteers
of America in Phoenix, Ariz., ON
branch line of the railroad. during three
and one-half months ending April f.
while at Yuma on the main Southern
Pacific line, approximately 10000 men