Year: 1879

A~N'>e meeting of the Bridgeport Board of Trade, by Morris w. Seymour Esq.-ED, ENo

 European nations owing to their geographic al position, their strict quarantine and customs reg llations, though greatly troubled by pauper ism, are not afflicted with the Tramp per SC. He is peculiarly an American institution and strangely enough menaces us with peculiar danger. An English beggar even were he to adopt the wandering habits of tramp, would still be nothing but beggar. He would lack the larger opportunities of his American Cous- in. But even with the opportunities he would be less to be feared. In the strong government of that country, he could take nc part, could exercise no influence He is governed, restrain ed and punished as the dogs and cattle are re- strained and made to obey, but in this country the tramp is no less a beggar than his En- gish cousin, but he is also 0Oter and has q voice in framing the very laws that are passed to restrain him. So that with us, to all the other perplexities that surround the question of pauperism and they are very numerous, IS added the fact, that your and my vote can be and is every election neutraliZed by that Of some worthless tramp, who, shirklng all the duties of citizenship imposed upon him, ln- creases our burdens and at the same time neu-

 tralizes our influence for good by voting against men and measures that embody those ideas, and finally, as have before said, takes part in enacting or preventing the enactment of laws especially made for his restraint.

 The tramp question is a question of reCrnt growth and yet so very marked in it's demands on public attention that there is but little that can be said that is novel. It seems to me, however, that there are certain aspects of the question, which are peculiarly appropriate to be considerd by meeting of the board of Trade, body peculiarly interested in eco'eon'- ic questions, and it will be therefore to those aspects of the question shall devote my at tention, closing with few practical sugges- tions as to the treatment of tramps.

 Let us consider then the tramp as an idle,

 absolute fellow who will not work and who

 gains living, not by the sweat Of his own

 brow, but by the sweat of other peoples brows,

 but who yet is fellsw citizen ot yours and

 mine, in Republic. One who is yoked up

 together with us for hts good or our harm.

 Let us consider him first, as factor in the economic problem. ...

 Every man who survives, is supported by his own exertions, by the Government or by charity. Every man produces more than he consumes or consumes more than he produces,

 He is sustained or is se!f-SuStGtning, and as he is placed in one or the other of these two class

 es, he is help or drag upon society. The tramp is one who will not support himself, 1t he can help it, but seeks to compel you to sup port him, directly by your charity, indirectly by payment of taxes It is no extravagant es- timate that there are to night 500 tramps with in the limits of the State of Connecticut. They are being fed, clothed and warmed by the money, labor and charity of our citizens. These

 five hundred men, could have, by their honest toll, earned at low estimate $500since morn

 ing By reason of their idleness it has cost at

 least 50 cents piece, to clothe feed and warm them. The State is $250 poorer for having had to provide for them, so that as mere matter of dollars and cents, you and l, the peo- ple of the State, are seven hundred and fifty dollars worse of tonight, than we might have ] been, but for the days support of this thrift l less idle crowd, who could, if they would, have supported themselves. If the rate should con l tinue the same for the entire year, the amount l would reach the startling sum of over quar-

 ter of million (273, 75O) of dollars. In an exceedingly interesting article in the London Quarterly Review, a writer, whose name IS unknown to me, takes up the story ot the march of an English generation through life, founding his article on the annual report 0t

 the register general of births, deaths and mar riages in England. He starts out with the

 birth of 100. 600 infants of both. sexes; he fol- lows them through life; as it is exhibited by

 the bare dry statistics in reference to the same. He shows how many are alive at any given

 age, how many childless, how many widows, how many cripples How much of each ones life is spent in sickness, how much in work. What 1 wish particularly to call yoM attention Ito, is where he estimates from all these data, the pecuniary value to the State of each life and the variations in that value from time to l time, as years increase. It was startling statement to me and one ! not altogether flattering, to be told that wheN we are twenty five years of age, we were at

 our maximum value, and that if at that age

 we had sold ourselves as slaves to the Govern

 ment or any large contractor, he would have been justified in paying for us the enormous sum of $1 ,2S0 in gold, and yet such IS the inevitable logic of figures. Why IS it. my friends, that the average is so low? Look around this room, see the men in 1t, who. We trust have many years before them yet, and who even n0ac, are taxed on more thousands of dollars worth of property than this calcula- tion gives hundreds, for the entire value of theIr life work Why is this SO? My friend,

 the tramp, who will call at your door in the

 morning and beg his breakfast, answers that qeestion in his own person. If you could set him at work, not only would he save tho quarter of million yearly, have spoken of. but by becoming producer he too would add

 to the wealth of the State. But assuming

 that he only become self-supporting, that l would relleve us all from the taxing of the

 people through charity and the Government | for his support, and enable each one of us to l yearly add to our wealth what is now diverted

 to that use. The difference would be almost l incalculable. Aside from the expense, the

 daily contact with tramps has 0n indirect effect 1 on us that belongs rather to the n'Orois of the ] question than the economy, and which, there l fore, I do not propose to dwell upon, but sim- I ply. call your attention to. Sc long as sin I aboun Is and accid .nts happen there will be l worthy people who need, -Christ's 1 poor, whom it is eur duty, as well as our l. looNoLUDRR ON FOURTH PAeE.l