The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-12-05
THE TRANSIENT CENTER" PROBLEM

THE TRANSIENT CENTER" PRobLE"
In view of the trouble developed IN
Asheville and elsewhere at the so-calleo
Government transient concentration CEN
ters," letter to The Charlotte Observer
written by the Rev. Baxter F. McLendon
of Bennettsville, s. c., is of more tnan
passing interest. The Rev. McLendon, an
evangelist known widely as Cyclone
Mack. presents his views on this subject
in the following communication:
ITO The Observer:
During brief sojourn in the Queen City Fri
day | took occasion to go around and inspect the
Federal transient center located there. That these
centers do some good there can be little doubt
for great deal of money expended on human be-
ings anywhere is bound tc accomplish some good
effects However, the whole scheme is calculated
to make patriotic citizens apprehensive.
at seems to me that the government is putting
a premium upon idleneSS and is deliberately en-
couraging deadbeats and men of criminal tenden-
cies to wander all over the country at the expense
of the taxpayers A recent check of the men IN
the AsheviIe camp revealed that the majority of
those who were being cared for there had long
or less true of all other camps.
in times like these men should stay in their
own communities when they are out of employ
ment mans neighbors more apt to be in
terested in him than would strangers, and job
is as likely to be found, or made, in one place as
another This thing of hoboing all over the ma
ton, of panhandling on the streets, of cumming
at strange homes ought to be discouraged and it
'In the Charlotte center weary Wihes and wan
dering memberships are being fed better rations
than the average workingman has, they are sleep
ing in comfortable beds, have toilets and showers,
get hospital treatment for diseases which are the
result of low and bestial living, and have the at
tention of workers, nurses, and clerks. Such
coddling this is not the sort of treatment which
will discourage deadbeatism on the part of base
and lazy htch-hikers and knights of the jungles.
"But if these places are to be continued they
should be run in this section of the country by
our own people, and the races ought to be kept
distinctly separate and apart. In the Charlotte es-
Enlistment 1 saw whites and negroes mixing in
discriminatory, using the same waiting room, the
toilet, and commmgFng in most comradely
fashion The polite young man who showed ME
around, young fellow from the North who is en-
plOyed there, said, The races mix remarkably well
: here, but they mix better at the transient farm
out in the country This bodies no good to either
race, and the whole plan is destined to eventuate
in troubles worse than those which it seeks to rem
edy. IF. McLENDON.
"Bennettsville s. c."
The foregoing and a mounting accumu-
sr1ation of evidence throughout the country
.@So1ly serves to prove that the transient
'gcenters" are, in large measure, just an
other mistake of the federal governments,
Switch is trying to do for the people what
SSthey formerly did for themselves and what
.--most of them should now be doing for
themselves
- While it is known fact that some who
are good but unfortunate citizens have
G been herded into the concentration cen
ters', it is fact now rapidly developing
for public attention, that a large proper
tino of the population of these centers i
composed of buns and criminals. Nearly
third of those gathered at Asheville anI
splaeed under arrest by the city police de
partment had known criminal records
How many of them are chronic loafers am
buns is not known by the public TIL
Asheville crowd came from every sectio
of the United States. That fact alon
would mark many of them as professions
hoboes or criminals.
BY very simple rule the governmer
could eliminate in large measure the d.
fects of its transient center" mistake.
it is considered necessary to have tn