The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-12
BY RAY PEACOCK
By the Associated Press

By the Associated Press
MILWAUKEE,, May 11.-Who
fought for recognition of Stephen
Fosters greatness Who proposed
irritation of the deserts, who sug-
gested dams and dykes on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers?
Who routed the Lincoln high
way? Who saw the need for the
Home Owners Loan Corporation?
Who suggested the CCC?
"We did" Jeff Davis bristles,
barely pausing for breath as he
enumerates. eve thought of them
and a lot of other things, only
nobody gives us credit!!'
By "we," Jeff means the no.
boes of America, Inc. but since
Jeff is king" for life, it's all
one and the same.
Here for the 32nd annual con-
vention of the 'boes opening Sun
day, it is Jeff Davis loud lament
that eve seldom get credit for
good things accomplished and new
er are invited to d~edications and
things like that.
With unerring instinct, he delves
into a pile of yellowed, much-fold-
ed papers, some of them price
less for their signatures, pulls n
out and waves it triumphantly.
"See?" He says. II wrote to
President Hoover that"
"President Taft said"
1.-THE governor of Ohio"
And it goes on like that. Jeff
Davis is used to big names, and
his organization boasts many men
with big names as it's members.
The speech of this man is a
great deal like his life. He skips
around so much it's hard to fol-
low him. Just when his listeners
gather that he's talking about the
CCC he's off discussing liberty
bonds sold by 'boes during the
World war, or some new digni-
tary who has just been made a
Duke or a Grand Supreme
Knight"
Jeff always is very sharp in his
distinctions between hoboes,
tramps and buns. 1t says on the
organizations letterhead:
Eyes, there is a difference. A
hobo will work, a tramp won't and
a bum couldn't"
The word hobo, Jeff says, origi-
nally was hoe-boy, a farm hand
who quit his job and went to the
city for whatever he could find.
He resent dictionary definitions
holding hobo and tramp to be sy-
nonymous.
A hobo, therefore, is a man who
travels about in pursuit of work,
and maintains his dignity. It's the
reason, Jeff says, why so many
men are not afraid to admit they
once chit the road.
A thousand resolutions (Jeff
likes big figures) will be presented
at the convention, and most inn
portant of them, Jeff says, will
be one dealing with vagrancy laws.
Jeff feels, very strongly, that
vagrancy laws r unconstitution-
dl-LQdC Lney Violate tle fourteenth
amendment. They are he says,
just an excuse for a police drag
net.
PUT somebody in Jail for not
doing anything, and next time
maybe he will do something" jeff
says.
The hoboes Of America, Inc. has
Sc lawyers working on the vagran-
cy law problem, Jeff says. 1t will
be a slow fight which will have to
be carried on separately in the
states, but he is hopeful.
For another thing, the 'boes plan
to take up with the American Fed
Grafton of Labor a plan for re-
creational centers to be set up by
the government, and available to
itinerants. Jeff is unworried by
the prospect that somebody else
may ''grab the credit"
"Our biggest victory ITO date"
he says, "is the all-weather high
way between Harrisburg, Pa, and
Pittsburgh, 100 miles of road pass
ing through nine tunnels built for