GLIMPSES INTO THE ABYSS.
GLIMPSES INTO THE ABYSS
BY
MARY HIGGS
Author of "The Master", "How to deal with the Unemployed"
LONDON:
P. S. KING & SON
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
1906
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
The author has conducted social research for a number of years on an
original plan.
Securing a lodging where a destitute woman could be accommodated, and
providing cleansing and dress, she has steadily taken in through a
period of six years every case of complete destitution that came to her,
willing to undergo remedial treatment. The work grew; accommodation for
four was provided, with two paid helpers. The small cottage used acts as
a social microscope, every case being personally investigated as to past
life, history, and present need, and dealt with accordingly. The writer,
as Secretary to the Ladies' Committee of Oldham Workhouse, next became
personally acquainted with the working of the Poor-law and studied it by
means of books also. By degrees the Rescue work came to cover
Police-court and Lodging-house work, and, as there was no other Shelter
in Oldham, cases of all sorts came under her notice. She thus studied
personally the microbes of social disorder.
By degrees she came to understand the existence of certain "classes"
(classifying them much as observation led her to classify objects
observed in physical studies). Also, she clearly perceived that causes
were at work leading to rapid degeneration, and was led to pre-suppose
currents working for social destruction.
She then commenced investigating remedial agencies and interrogating
social observers. She found among them a similar experience of great
waste and lack of salvage through defects not to be remedied by private
action.
This led her more and more to consider national aspects of the question.
She visited personally Hadleigh Farm Colony, questioned experts at West
Ham, visited and interrogated Police, Prevention of Cruelty to Children
officers, Vigilance officers, and others; and by degrees obtained a
mass of information. But still the root problems of poverty remained
dark to her, and she became convinced that nothing but accurate and
scientific exploration of the depths would reveal the currents leading
to degradation.
After the idea dawned upon her, some months elapsed before she felt able
to arrange to face the ordeal, but during this time proofs accumulated
of the uselessness of any other methods. She reflected that exploration
was the method of science, and became herself an explorer of "Darkest
England." The results amply justified the experiment. She has now
carried through the following explorations, each time with increasing
knowledge:--
(_a_) A tour through West Yorkshire, embracing one municipal, one common
lodging-house, two tramp wards, and a women's shelter.
(_b_) An investigation into a Lancashire tramp ward.
(_c_) Investigation of a Salvation Army Women's Shelter.
(_d_) An investigation into the lodging-house conditions in a
neighbouring town.
(_e_) An investigation into conditions in women's lodging-houses in a
Lancashire centre.
(_f_) Investigation into a London casual ward; also enquiry and
investigation as to women's lodging-houses in London.
These investigations have placed her in possession of facts which form
the basis of the introductory essay.
In addition, however, her possession of experience and knowledge have
opened to her many sources of information not available to the general
public. She has received much private information embodied in these
pages, and has had the privilege of attending and taking part in
official discussions. Also by visits to a common lodging-house she
obtained much light on the views of the class that occasionally find
themselves in the tramp ward. She has also collected information from
the Press, and studied the literature obtainable which threw light on
vagrancy legislation in other countries.
Recently she has visited Denmark and had the privilege of investigating
the working of the Poor-law system. The official view was obtained, and
workhouses, etc., visited, and the system seen in operation. But also by
a visit to Salvation Army Headquarters in Copenhagen, and from other
sources, she obtained as thorough an idea as possible of the actual
working of the nation's remedies for poverty. Also the connection of the
Poor Law with the Municipality was studied.
She also undertook a literary investigation into deterioration of human
personality, viewed from the psychological, medical, and religious
points of view, writing an essay which won the Gibson Prize at Girton
(1905).
It seemed to be the necessary corollary to the acquisition of a wide
collection of facts to form some unitary theory capable of correlating
them.
A very simple theory, which will be found to accord with Plato's
diagnosis of the degeneration of a State or an individual, with Meyer's
"Disintegrations of Personality," and with James' "Phenomena of
Religious Experience," therefore underlies this essay; but it is apart
from its objects to do more than state it. It is enunciated more fully
in an article in the _Contemporary Review_, now out, entitled "Mankind
in the Making." It is this:--
(_a_) The psychology of the individual retraces the path of the
psychology of the race.
(_b_) In any given individual the _whole_ path climbed by the foremost
classes or races may not be retraced. Therefore numbers of individuals
are permanently stranded on lower levels of evolution. _Society can
quicken evolution_ by right social arrangements, scientific in
principle.
(_c_) Granted that any individual attains a certain psychical evolution
in _normal_ development, either evolution or devolution lies before him.
Wrong social conditions lead to widespread devolution. The retrograde
unit retraces downwards the upward path of the race, and can only be
reclaimed along this path by wise social legislation, bringing steady
pressure to bear along the lines of evolution, (barring extraordinary
religious phenomena, which often reclaim individuals or communities).
(_d_) Society has now arrived at a point of development when these facts
must be recognised, and the whole question of the organisation of
humanity put on a scientific basis. It will then be possible to reduce
the sciences of sociology and psychology to scientific order, and our
national treatment of such questions as vagrancy will be no longer
purely empirical.[1]
NOTE.--The Committee on Vagrancy, before which the author appeared
as a witness (see Appendix IV.), was sitting during the months
occupied in the writing of this book. Its conclusions, with which
the author is in substantial agreement, are therefore added in the
form of notes and appendices.
This Preface was not originally written as such, but formed the
introduction to the Gamble Prize Essay, in connection with which
the essayist was required to furnish a history of personal
research in connection with the subject chosen.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See pp. 83-86.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. VAGRANCY: AN ESSAY AWARDED GIRTON GAMBLE PRIZE, 1906 1
I. Vagrancy as an underlying social factor, p. 1--II. Vagrancy
from the commencement of the nineteenth century, p. 7--III.
Special legislation for vagrancy, p. 11--IV. Examination of
vagrancy as it exists at present: statistics, p. 17--V. Further
(personal) investigations, p. 23--VI. Indictment of the tramp ward
(correspondence with a working man), p. 33--VII. The common
lodging-house, p. 46--VIII. Summary of results of investigation,
p. 52--IX. Vagrancy legislation in other countries, p. 54--X.
Tentative attempts in England, p. 64--XI. Reforms having reference
to vagrancy, p. 71--XII. Conclusion, p. 82.
II. FIVE DAYS AND FIVE NIGHTS AS A TRAMP AMONG TRAMPS 87
I. A night in a municipal lodging-house--II. A night in a common
lodging-house--III. First night in a workhouse tramp ward--IV.
Second night in a workhouse tramp ward--V. Night in a woman's
shelter.
III. A NORTHERN TRAMP WARD 136
IV. A NIGHT IN A SALVATION ARMY SHELTER 175
V. THREE NIGHTS IN WOMEN'S LODGING-HOUSES 197
I. First night--II. Second night--III. Third night.
VI. COMMON LODGING-HOUSE LIFE 232
I. In a northern town--II. In a northern city.
VII. LONDON INVESTIGATIONS 255
I. London lodgings--II. A London tramp ward.
VIII. A SYMPOSIUM IN A COMMON LODGING-HOUSE 269
IX. VAGRANCY: ITS RELATION TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 284
APPENDICES.
I. TRANSFER OF CASUALS TO POLICE SUPERVISION 303
II. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE 305
III. LABOUR COLONIES: SUMMARY 309
IV. WOMEN: REPORT OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE 312
V. EVILS OF SHORT SENTENCES 316
VI. PREFACE BY CANON HICKS, OF SALFORD, TO
"FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS AS A TRAMP
AMONG TRAMPS" 317
VII. IMMORALITY AS CAUSED BY DESTITUTION AMONG WOMEN 319
VIII. COMMON LODGING-HOUSES _versus_ SHELTERS 324
* * * * *
INDEX 329
CHAPTER I.
VAGRANCY.
INTRODUCTION.
The word "vagrancy," from the Latin _vagare_, to wander, now implies a
crime against civilised society (Vagrancy Report, p. 3, footnote). Laws
to restrain or abolish it form part of the code of European and other
civilised States.
Nevertheless, the _fact_ of vagrancy is one deep rooted in human nature.
The tendency to it recurs both in the individual and in the race. In one
stage of development the child, unless restrained by watchful care, is
essentially a vagrant, and a "roaming fit" seizes many of us at times.
Before considering therefore historically, the legislation and remedies
applied to the _crime_ of vagrancy, it will be well to dwell briefly on
the underlying reasons for it.
I. VAGRANCY AS AN UNDERLYING SOCIAL FACTOR.
If we take the history of any country we find that human life has
covered it at different times much as geological strata cover the face
of the earth. In Victoria Cave, Settle, for instance, human remains and
relics of the corresponding animal and social life were actually found
stratified. If you take the lowest stratum of society in any country the
aboriginal man was, and still is, in countries where aborigines survive,
a vagrant. The nomad is the foundation stone of human society. He is
therefore a _survival_, and should be treated as such.[2] So long as
mankind was nomad, the only way in which a man could be a vagrant in the
modern sense of the term would be by some crime that excluded him from
the companionship of his fellows like that of Cain. A man with his hand
against every man would be a vagrant. A whole tribe might become vagrant
relatively to other tribes, as the Bushmen of South Africa, or the
gipsies of all countries.
As civilization proceeded they remained as representatives of a prior
stratification of humanity.
As by degrees men became pastoral and acquired flocks and herds, the man
of no possessions would be relatively left behind as the unabsorbed
nomad. But the world was wide, the best land alone was appropriated, and
even when England had become largely agricultural there was plenty of
room for Robin Hood and his merry men, and doubtless countless others,
to lead the nomad life.
Though the great majority of the population was settled on the land,
there was an amount of authorised travelling that, relatively to the
facilities for travel, was considerable. Pilgrimages to shrines and
military expeditions and merchants' journeys led many on to the roads
with money in their pouch, and the less wealthy could make use of the
hospitality of abbeys. Fuller describes the old abbeys as "promiscuously
entertaining some who did not need and more who did not deserve it"
("Church History," ed. 1656, p. 298). Even the funds of the Church did
not suffice for the number of people roaming the country in idleness and
beggary, as by degrees the country became settled, land enclosed, and
the opportunity for sustenance by a vagrant life less and less
certain.[3]
As far back as the reign of Richard II., in 1388, it became necessary
for the protection of society to legislate against vagrancy.[4] The
natural thing when society was almost wholly agricultural, and
stationary in villages or towns, was to legislate against and forbid
vagrancy. Beggars impotent to serve were to remain where the Act found
them, and be there maintained or sent back to their birthplace. This is
the germ of the law of settlement, by which every Englishman was
supposed to have a birthright in his native parish. The laws were made
stricter and stricter, yet vagrancy did not cease, even when the penalty
was whipping, loss of ears and hanging for the third offence.[5]
Even now society does not recognise that units squeezed out of true
social relationships _must_ become vagrants, as surely as soil trodden
on the highway becomes dust.
The amount of vagrancy, _i.e._ of those obliged to revert to primitive
conditions, depends as surely on the drying up of means of sustenance as
the highway dust on the absence of refreshing showers.
Any change in society that displaces a large number of units is sure to
result in increase of vagrancy. Of those forced out many cannot regain a
footing if they would.[6]
But as time went on another class was added to the nomad as akin to it,
and yet its origin is wholly different. The man unable to settle because
of his affinity to a roving life is one thing, the man _squeezed out_ of
the pastoral or agricultural life is another. The latter is akin to our
"unskilled labourer," a social unit unfitted for any but a primitive
kind of existence, unfitted for industrial development, but not
essentially nomad.[7]
As early as Henry VIII., 1531, we find a second class, that of the
"incapable," those who could not work, who were "licensed to beg."
The formation of this class was accelerated by the failure of the Church
to provide for the assistance of the poor, by suppression of abbeys,
etc., at the same time that the abolition of villeinage, which was still
recent, threw off from organised society dependents very unfit to live a
self-supporting life. (See Note 2.) Thus again the drying up of means
of subsistence created as it were another layer of easily drifting dust.
These two classes, that of the "poor, impotent, sick, and diseased,"
_i.e._ the incapable, and of the "lusty," form the foundation of our
Poor-law system.[8]
It is thus seen that changes in the social organisation left behind
another stratum to be provided for by legislation. So long as the
half-feudal, half-ecclesiastical framework of society existed, there was
nutriment for the individual who was left stranded. He was shepherded in
some way or other either by church or lord. But when social change left
him unshepherded the charge fell on _the nation as an organised unit_.
The Poor Law began. The necessity for it arose at once when "all parts
of England and Wales be presently with rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy
beggars exceedingly pestered, by means whereof daily happened in the
same realm horrible murders, thefts, and other great outrages."
Since, therefore, a transition period leaves behind such a layer of
social _débris_, it is only to be expected that we should find the third
great change that has passed over society, which is still recent,
namely, the change to the industrial epoch, to be productive of another
layer of social _débris_ or dust.
II. VAGRANCY FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
If society was profoundly affected by the change from agriculture to
sheep farming that took place in the Elizabethan period, and other
social changes that followed, how much more must we expect to find the
effects of such a tremendous change as the Industrial revolution! John
A. Hobson points out (in "Problems of Poverty," p. 24) that "the period
from 1790 to 1840 was the most miserable epoch in the history of the
English working classes." It is doubtful indeed whether we have really
recovered from the "sickness" of that period. The rise in wages has
largely been swallowed up by the enormous rise in rent, estimated by Sir
Robert Giffen at 150 per cent. in fifty years, which in city life is
felt most oppressively. "Classes" have, it is true, risen out of the
"masses," including the upper working class, but the poverty of large
populations is still extreme. It is a matter of grave moment for
civilized society that in London, for example, according to Charles
Booth's investigations, it can still be said that out of a population of
891,539, 111,000 might be swept out of existence and "no class nor any
industry would suffer in the least." For the origin of such a mass of
hopeless poverty, we must look to the miseries of the early factory
times, and the oppressive pressure of capital on labour, only slowly
being counteracted by legislation.
We have in fact added to the class of hereditary vagrants and those
driven from means of subsistence by incapacity and helplessness, a third
class which we may call "inefficient." The origin of this class is
directly due to the incoming of the factory system and the
specialisation of industry. As the demand for labour in towns grew,
numbers of poor were attracted. Of these some were capable of attaining
industrial skill, others were not. The latter became hangers-on to the
rising industries. It is not sufficiently recognised that the pressure
of the demands of capital on labour are continually increasing, and
that, therefore, many fall below the standard of efficiency _now_ who
originally would not have done so. For example, in cotton mills the
number of spindles per worker has greatly increased, and also the
"speeding" of the machinery. A man who could work at the old pace might
not be able to work at the new, and would therefore be rejected as
"inefficient," but he would only be _relatively_ "inefficient." Yet such
is the skill necessary in British industries, that "low-skilled labour"
is all that numbers of working lads can ever attain to, through defects
in physique or education. It will easily be seen that this mass of
"low-skilled" labour furnishes a third class from which vagrancy may
easily be recruited, by slight relative changes in the prosperity of the
community.[9]
Also there is another change, due to wide social differences in
organisation, between the preceding century and the nineteenth, which
has a direct bearing on the question of vagrancy, but has been little
noticed. It is evident that _facilities for migration_ must have some
relation to amount of migration. In the days when it was a formidable
journey to travel from London to Manchester, the fact affected all
grades of society. The coming of the steam engine has meant more than
industrial revolution, it spells social revolution. It has acted as a
disintegrating as well as an integrating force. On the one hand the
_community_ is more closely bound together by newspapers, common
customs, facilities for intercourse, and quick transit. On the other
hand family ties are loosened, and a vagrant habit of migration,
seasonal and otherwise, makes residence in a strange place no longer
formidable. As a social solvent the effect of the railway can hardly be
exaggerated. But an _individual_ separated from family or social ties
is easily loosened, if means of support fail, and quite a new form of
vagrancy arises from "inefficient" industrials migrating in search of
work.[10]
We must therefore consider next the attempt of the social organism to
provide for the vagrancy of the new era, the reasons for its
ineffectiveness, and the remedies most likely to succeed.
(1) The _attempt_ we shall find in the provision of the tramp ward.
(2) The reasons for its ineffectiveness will best be elucidated by an
examination of the actual conditions of things in respect to vagrancy at
present. This will be given largely as a result of research work done by
the writer, or of facts she has collected.
(3) It will then be necessary to examine first some remedies tried in
other countries.
After this some attention may be paid to tentative experiments in our
own country.
(4) It will then remain to sketch the lines of future development and if
possible elucidate scientific outlines of possible progress from the
collected facts.
The mass of these is so great that for the sake of brevity this historic
prelude has been made very short. A most interesting historical study
could be made of the relation of vagrancy to the ebb and flow of
national life.
III. SPECIAL LEGISLATION FOR VAGRANCY.
With the disturbances due to a change of condition of the working
classes, and to the oncoming of a new epoch, arose an impulse towards
repression, similar to that which in Elizabeth's time led to the laws
against "sturdy beggars." The pressure of poverty, driving off
individuals into the unattached or "dust" condition, causes of course an
increase of beggary. This is resented by the upper classes, and if they
constitute the main proportion of government, the natural consequence is
sterner legislation with a view to putting down the evil. Thus, in 1824
was passed an Act, still in force, by which a beggar wandering alone, or
asking alms in public places, may be punished as an idle or disorderly
person with imprisonment for one month with hard labour. If already
sentenced, with three months' hard labour. If again sentenced, twelve
months' hard labour with whipping.[11] The severity of this law has been
mitigated by the magistrates' unwillingness to convict for "the first
offence."
But all legislation is unavailing to control vagrancy by _repression_ if
it springs from widespread social evils. The state of England under
heavy tariffs grew worse and worse. Rose in his "Rise of Democracy" says
that duties were imposed on 1,200 articles--"a system which was
disastrous to the nation's finance, and to the manufacturers and
operatives who formed the backbone of the nation. Manufacturers had
enormous stocks of unsaleable goods, operatives had the bitter
experience of an empty larder." "The state of society in England," wrote
Dr. Arnold to Carlyle in 1840, "was never yet paralleled in history."
"Alton Locke" and Cooper's "Autobiography" reveal something of the
prevailing wretchedness. Lord Rosebery (speaking at Manchester Chamber
of Commerce, November 1st, 1897) gave a picture of Manchester in 1839:
"118 mills and other works were standing idle; 681 shops and offices
were untenanted; 5,490 dwellings unoccupied. In one district there were
2,000 families without a bed among them; 8,000 people whose weekly
income was only 1_s_. 2-1/2_d_. In Stockport 72,314 people had received
relief whose average income was 9-1/5_d_." Wheat was at 65_s_. a
quarter. Strikes followed in 1842 and 1844.
Such a state of things must inevitably have led to the gradual breaking
down of numbers into vagrancy. The process is a slow one. Homes
successfully resist disintegration, often for a surprising length of
time, but if trade depression continues they yield. First the worst go,
and then better ones follow. This leads to pressure on public
accommodation, at first hardly noticed, but as it increases there arise
rumours of need for fresh legislation. This again is accompanied by
investigation, often lengthy, and tentative experiment also covers
ground, and so time passes.[12] It is not surprising, however, to learn
that by degrees workhouses came to be regarded as "poor men's hotels,"
that the roving vagrant population seriously increased, and that
pressure on accommodation led at last to legislation. In London
especially the number of "sleepers-out" increased so much that the
existence of a poor class practically outside the law of settlement and
requiring at any rate temporary accommodation was recognised.[13] It was
at first a _humane_ measure to supplement the old severe Vagrant Act, 5
Geo. IV. c. 5, of imprisonment for one month with hard labour for
wandering about, begging and neglecting family, or for three months,
with hard labour if previously convicted, or found in uninhabited
buildings, or if vagrants without visible means of subsistence. This was
supplemented by the Metropolitan Houseless Poor Acts, 1864 and 1865 (27
& 28 Vict. c. 116, and 28 & 29 Vict. c. 34), which provided for
destitute wayfarers and wanderers and foundlings shelter for the night.
But the creation of a new pauper class, _i.e._ CASUALS, needed a very
wise statesmanship. We shall see later that the same need in other
countries has led to much wiser measures.
In England, by the extension of this system to all workhouses, the
CASUAL WARD was created in 1871.[14] Legislation since has principally
been directed to making it deterrent and severe. It has never been a
_provision_ for migration such as the _German relief station_ affords.
It does not deal effectively with either vagrant, incapable, or the
special product of the industrial period, the ineffective. The charges
to be made against it must, however, be backed up by evidence. It will
be sufficient now briefly to sketch what can only be considered as a
national costly experiment which has failed in its purpose.[15] At first
only _shelter_ was provided, then _food_ to obviate beggary, but of the
most meagre description[16]: in many unions still only bread and water
and a small portion of cheese is given, even with hard labour,[17] At
first the casual was only detained till 11 A.M. or till completion of
task. But as the numbers were found to increase, by the Casual Poor Act
of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 36) it was ordered that the casual poor should
be detained till the second day and discharged at 9 A.M., after a full
day's task. There are still, however, many unions where this is not
enforced.[18]
A task of work in return for food was first demanded in 1842 after the
commencement of the tide of vagrancy of which I have spoken.
It will be seen what a tremendous national experiment thus gradually
arose under most unfavourable conditions. The nature of these adverse
conditions may be summarised thus:
(1) The legislation was at best "hand to mouth," not taking into account
the real causes at work.
(2) It was the result to a large extent of class prejudice, and all
homeless wanderers, from whatever cause, are lumped together as
"vagrants."
(3) It was impossible for the Local Government Board, however much it
wished to do so, to secure a _uniform system throughout the country_. It
does not even yet exist.
(4) The system attempted to deal with a class without any effective
control over them. There is less control over vagrants than over
paupers.
(5) Considerations of self-interest would obviously cause guardians to
attempt to keep down casuals, regardless of statistics of sleeping out
and beggary.
(6) Official opinion would hardly be in favour of a troublesome class,
and grave abuses might easily arise.
To show that the casual ward is ineffective and costly, and open to
grave abuse, evidence will now be given. It must be clearly noted that
_provision for migration_ is a new need of the Industrial age, and
should not be confused with repression of vagrancy. _Vagrancy proper_
was the _crime_ of individuals who dropped out of a settled, mainly
agricultural, society into the wandering life. _Vagrancy as induced by
modern conditions_ may be no crime. It is not a crime for a man who
cannot obtain work to migrate to find it, or for a man to return home on
foot from a distance. Yet, if there is no proper provision for
_migration_, a man may, by contact with vagrants proper and
degeneration, become incapable of settled existence. To prevent this
should be the aim of social legislation. This would be _true_ repression
of vagrancy.
IV. EXAMINATION OF VAGRANCY AS IT EXISTS AT PRESENT.
STATISTICS OF INVESTIGATION.
It is very difficult at first sight to examine the phenomena of
vagrancy. Statistics covering the whole nation are comparatively
useless, except that a great _general_ rise, such as has recently taken
place, has grave significance. The policy of guardians in different
parts of the country changes. Severer tasks and harsher conditions
naturally reduce the number of candidates for the casual ward. Therefore
statistics of reductions in inmates may be most misleading.[19] Mr.
C. H. Fox, of Wellington, Somerset, has for a long time taken pains to
observe the tide of vagrancy flowing through his union, which receives
casuals journeying northward. The stringent order of the Local
Government Board, February 25, 1896, asking for the detention of casuals
for two nights instead of one, and advising the separate cell system,
had the following results: "The number of casuals applying for police
orders in Somerset from July, 1895, to July, 1896, twelve months before
the more stringent order, was 25,062; and the number from July, 1896,
seven months after the more stringent order, was 19,789. This shows a
diminution of 21 per cent., and the current saying was 'Behold the
success of their severity.' But, alas! during the latter period the
cases of begging in the country rose no less than 83 per cent. and
sleeping out 39 per cent., showing that severity only drove men to beg
and find lodging where there was no imprisonment." The same observer
shows how casual statistics depend upon statistics of unemployment by
the following observation:
"He lived on one of the main arteries of nomadic travel from
London and the north to Plymouth and the west, and had peculiar
opportunities for observation, of which he freely availed himself.
Casuals applying for police orders 1890-91 (years of fairly good
trade), 2,109; casuals applying for police orders 1893-94 (years
of depressed trade) 4,705. Certainly the additional 2,596 were not
"professional tramps," but, as usual, unfortunate _inferior
workmen who were the first to receive notice when trade was
bad_."[20]
That the same results are occurring now, namely, the crowding into the
tramp ward of unemployed workmen travelling in search of work, I have
ample evidence. A few facts will suffice to elucidate this point, but it
must also be remarked that in addition to _increase_ there is also an
actual _displacement_ of the ordinary vagrant by the unfortunate
ineffective or even effective workman out of work. The reason for this
is not far to seek. Times of general distress and unemployment are
_harvest times for the man who lives by preying on society_. He who is
not ashamed to beg can easily invent a "moving tale," and find his
harvest of charity ready. Consequently, he is seldom too hard up to get
a bed in the common lodging-house. "Mouchers" of all descriptions, both
infirm and otherwise, may be found enjoying themselves, getting usually
plenty of drink and food, while the "genuine working man" roams the
country with a sinking heart and empty stomach, sleeping in the open or
forced into the casual ward.[21]
This little-noticed fact is attested in various ways.
Here are the statistics of male casuals examined in Rochdale by an
expert workhouse official during the closing weeks of 1903: "Of 936
persons reported on, the majority were in the prime of life. There were
only 26 under the age of 21, and 34 over 66. Only 62 were married; 133
were widowers and 741 single. There were 391 skilled artisans, 555
'labourers,' 125 ex-soldiers and sailors (many with excellent conduct
records), and one was an ex-member of the Royal Irish Constabulary."
Thirty-nine admitted that they had lost their work through drink.
Doubtless there were others of whom the same could be said (Dr. Pinck,
the workhouse medical officer at Rochdale, is of opinion that a
comparatively small proportion of true vagrants owe their poverty to
intemperance.) Of all the 936 persons reported on, the workhouse master
said _he could not describe more than 33 as habitual vagrants_. Mr.
Leach himself, who has made a close study of the subject, is convinced
that a large proportion of the men on the road are tramping because they
want work and cannot find it at home. The report continues: "Upon these
the present regulations press with senseless severity."
A similar investigation, summarised in the "Toynbee Record" for
February, 1905, gives the result of two voluntary investigations in the
months of November and December, 1904, conducted at Whitechapel casual
ward. Of 250 men only 15 admitted marriage, 56 per cent. were between 30
and 50 years of age, 20 per cent. had been in the Army. Dockers and
labourers were numerous, but other occupations were represented by quite
a few members apiece. There was only one tailor. The investigators "were
surprised at the thoroughly decent appearance of a large proportion of
the men."[22]
Okehampton found (winter 1904-5) that "a large proportion of tramps were
discharged soldiers from the Army, 25 or 30 per cent."[23] At a
conference on vagrancy in Manchester (winter 1904-5), attended by
masters, matrons, relieving officers, and guardians, similar reports
were given, and a unanimous resolution was passed in favour of fresh
legislation, while the failure of the present system and its result as
_manufacturing_ vagrants was freely acknowledged. With regard to the
growth of vagrancy as a result of bad trade, the following investigation
may be of value. It will illustrate also the _irregularity_ of
treatment, and the natural tendency of wanderers to go where the
treatment is less harsh.
It is self-evident that large increases in vagrancy in consecutive years
cannot possibly be due to a _normal increase_ in vagrancy, but _must_ be
due to extraordinary pressure forcing individuals into it. Thus the
relation of vagrancy to unemployment is amply demonstrated. (See note
19.)
_Investigation into 54 Unions in Eastern Division by Lynn
Guardians._--43 replies; 4 had no vagrants; 37 show a striking increase
for September, 1904. September, 1903, 2,859 vagrants; September, 1904,
4,082; increase, 1,223. Decrease in 6 unions.
_Task._
In 16. Oakum picking, Remainder. Sawing wood,
4 lbs. unbeaten, 8 lbs. beaten stone breaking, or working
oakum. on the land.
_Dietary:_ 8 oz. of bread and water ... Breakfast.
8 oz. bread, 1-1/2 oz. cheese ... Dinner.
8 oz. bread and water ... Supper.
In a very few gruel.
_Smallburgh._--Task, 12 cwt. granite. September, 1903, none; September,
1904, 9. _This task is considered remedial, as by it the number of
vagrants was reduced from 173 (January to November, 1903) to 52 (1904)._
_Cosford._--50 per cent. increase.
_Henstead_, after introducing oakum picking, found "a remarkable falling
off." Year ending Lady Day, 1897, 2,337; Year ending Lady Day, 1904, 62.
_Docking Union._--Decrease. Task, pumping the well and working on the
land.
_Freebridge Lynn._--September, 1904, only 4 men. Task, oakum picking. In
1893 the number of vagrants relieved was above 900, but "the tramp of
late has given the place a wide berth." Only 24 have been admitted.
"Probably the road-army came by another route than Docking and Gayton to
the 7-cwt. stone-breaking at Lynn, fighting shy of oakum-picking and
well-pumping." _But they come, and the decrease in these two unions has
resulted in an increase at Downham, Wisbech, and Lynn._
At _Thetford_ "the cells and stone-breaking have prevented any material
increase in the number of vagrants."
At _Halsted_, in spite of oakum-picking, there have been 41 vagrants,
compared with 9 in September, 1903.
At _Chelmsford_ there were 205, September, 1904, as against 126,
September, 1905.
At _Walsingham_ a slight decrease, owing to oakum picking being
enforced.
So great is the pressure, however, that even oakum-picking or
stone-breaking and corn-grinding have not prevented a large increase in
Maldon, Ipswich, Saffron Walden, Norwich, Dunmow, Swaffham, and Wisbech.
_Downham_ increased from 64, September, 1903, to 167, September, 1904.
No task is imposed save gardening.
V. FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS (PERSONAL).
Investigations from the official point of view are interesting and
instructive, and, if conducted in a scientific spirit, would eventually
be of great value in solving social problems. But in the present
confused state of things there is also special value in the observations
of witnesses who, by descending into the abyss, explore its conditions,
and form an independent judgment. So far as my personal observation
goes, everyone who has done this expresses surprise at the result,
namely, that the impression that the vast majority of so-called
"vagrants" are "loafers," vanishes, and the inmates of the casual ward
are mostly found to be seekers for work. Little short of a revolution
may be made in preconceived opinion by actual experience.
We all know that a rise in pauperism has taken place. In the year ending
Lady Day, 1904, £587,131 was expended in poor relief in excess of the
corresponding period 1903; 869,128 received relief, as against 847,480
in 1903, on January 1st. But these increases in _actual_ pauperism
represent enormous increases in _potential_ pauperism. The hold of a
family or of an individual on sustenance gradually loosens, and the
least competent or more unfortunate are shaken off and drop into the
abyss. At a meeting of the City Council of Manchester in the winter of
1904 it was deliberately stated that "between 40,000 and 50,000 people
were on the verge of starvation." An investigation undertaken by the
Rev. A. H. Gray in an area between All Saints' and the Medlock, in
Ancoats by the University Settlement, and in Hulme by the Lancashire
College Settlement, revealed in 3,000 houses about 900 people without
employment, "of whom 442 were heads of families." In addition, numbers
were only partially employed. One man "trudged once every week to a
smaller town 18 miles off where one or two days' work have been
procurable."
It will be seen, therefore, that changes in _averages_ of unemployment
must result in increase of vagrancy. The average of unemployed returned
by trade unions in January for 10 years (1894-1903) was 4.7 per cent.;
in January, 1903, it was 5.1 per cent., and in January, 1904, 6.6 per
cent. (See p. 76.) Of course, unskilled and unorganised industries are
still more affected.
Mr. Ensor, who tramped for a week, 150 miles, in the northern counties,
and whose experiences were given in the _Independent Review_, relates
that "where to obtain work" is a "burning question" among the inmates of
the vagrant ward. It can hardly be imagined how soon a destitute man is
forced of necessity to wander; in the absence of money, being even too
poor to buy a newspaper, he is dependent on vague information received
"on the road," and naturally is driven to seek food and shelter wherever
it is to be had. A slightly more humane treatment in any part of the
country may lead to an influx of these unfortunates.[24] Thus the
comparative comfort of Welsh workhouses led in the winter of 1904-5 to
an "incursion of tramps." Even the prisons were filled by tramps who
rebelled against regulations. "Two or three times a week batches of
tramps have to be removed from the prisons of Carnarvon and Ruthin to
Shrewsbury and Knutsford, and even to gaols in English towns." With
regard to this result of the present vagrancy regulations, there is much
to be said. A working man cannot sustain himself in a condition fit for
work on the tramp ward dietary.[25] I have personal experience of the
exhaustion consequent upon it. Unless supplemented by begging, a man
must inevitably lose strength if he tramps from ward to ward. Mr. Ensor
himself saw a young man throw up work and triumphantly march to prison
from sheer hunger. Tramp ward regulation rations (including gruel)
contain only 21-1/2 ounces of proteid as against 31-1/2 ounces _in the
lowest prison fare_. But this does not represent the real state of the
case. In many workhouses there is only dry bread with a small portion of
cheese, the gruel being omitted without substitute. (See note 16.) The
bread is often coarse, dry and crusty, leavings from the workhouse, and
most unappetising. Then dry bread _alone_ can scarcely be eaten, and
even water is not always to be obtained to wash it down. (Pp. 112, 124,
152.) The following are reports given by tramps themselves as to food to
the writer.
A man said he was too disturbed in mind to eat it, but if he could have
done so "he could not have lived upon it." This man "had been in two
situations over thirty years," and appeared clean and respectable. He
said the majority of men in with him at Bury were also working men out
of employment.
One man said he had been in a workhouse where the "skilly" was brought
in a bucket, and the men had to dip it out as best they could in
jampots.
In this investigation, conducted personally by the writer, there was a
general consensus of opinion that prison was less hard.[26] (See also
Chap. VIII.)
The actual difference in legal dietary is appended:--
_Prison Dietary--Lowest Scale._
Breakfast ... 8 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
Supper ... 8 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
Dinner ... 3 days, 8 oz. bread, 1 pint porridge.
2 days, 8 oz. bread, 8 oz. potatoes.
2 days, 8 oz. bread, 8 oz. suet pudding.
_Daily Average_, 28-1/2 oz. solid, with 2-1/4 pints gruel, 1/2 pint
porridge.
_Prisoners' Task_, 5 or 10 cwt. stones, 2 lbs. oakum.
_Legal Dietary for Casual Paupers._
Breakfast ... 6 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
Supper ... 6 oz. bread, 1 pint gruel.
Dinner ... 8 oz. bread, 1-1/2 oz. cheese.
_Daily Average_, 21-1/2 oz. solid, with 2 pints gruel.
_Casuals' Task_, 14 cwt. stones.
Evidence comes from all over the country of increase in prison
statistics through crimes due to a desire to escape from tramp ward
conditions and preference for prison fare.[27]
Such instances as this are continually occurring.
"What am I to do if I cannot get work?" asked John Rush, a tramp, when
brought before the King's Lynn magistrates on a charge of refusing to
break stones in the casual ward.
"You are to go to prison for twenty-one days," replied the magistrate.
Rush had been required to break 7 cwt. of stone. He asked to have it
weighed, as he was of opinion that it was 12 cwt. His request was
refused, and he declined to do the work.
A large number of tramps at Andover were sentenced to twenty-one days'
imprisonment for refusing to do their task.
"Seventeen vagrants were marched from the workhouse to the police-court
at Canarvon (_North Wales Chronicle_, 25th February, 1905), handcuffed.
Seventeen out of twenty-three inmates refused to work. They alleged that
they had been forced to sleep on a wet tiled floor and were 'almost
perishing.' They were sent to prison for a month with hard labour."
Such incidents come from all over the country and are backed up by
prison statistics. Prosecutions for offences of this kind rose in 1901
to 5,118, and have risen further. In one prison, Devizes, they doubled
the inmates.
It must be remembered that pressure on the tramp ward, as our country's
provision for destitution, has been much lightened by the rise of many
large shelters. These deal mostly, however, with the town unemployed. It
has not been sufficiently considered that owing to the massing of
population in towns, the destitute unemployed are sure to appear in the
tramp ward, but that our present system _forces_ them to migrate, at any
rate in a small circle, as after claiming the tramp ward they cannot
claim shelter again in the same place _for a month_, except under
penalty of four nights' detention. All masters of workhouses witness how
this tends to make a _forced migration in a limited circle_.[28]
Therefore to the town unemployed the shelter is a boon, as it enables
him to remain in one place and look for work, and the testimony of all
who are working shelters and labour bureaux is that numbers who avail
themselves of them _do_ obtain employment. But if they belong to the
"inefficient" class this employment cannot be permanent.[29] So much is
the tramp ward disliked, and so useless is it as a remedy for
destitution, since at best it affords only a night's shelter with poor
food and hard labour, that numbers prefer to "sleep out." The London
County Council's census of the homeless poor, Friday, 29th January,
1904, revealed 1,463 men, 116 women, 46 boys, and 4 girls walking the
streets, and 100 males and 68 females sleeping in doorways, etc., a
total of 1,797 homeless poor in a small area in London (from Hyde Park
in the west, to the east end of Whitechapel Road, from High Holborn, Old
Street and Bethnal Green, in the north, to the Thames, in the south). In
the winter 1903-4, no fewer than 300 people were known to be sleeping
out every night in Manchester.
The fate of many unfortunates is a career of gradual physical and moral
deterioration from which there is, humanly speaking, no escape.
A man may _begin_ a prison career accidentally. An incident related to
me is as follows:--A man went to a place where there was a local
merry-making, hoping to pick up a little. There was no room either in
tramp ward or lodging-house; he slept out, unfortunately for him, on
private grounds. For this he got three months' imprisonment. (See Chap.
VIII.)
The case of those who sleep out may end otherwise, but as tragically,
after long privation. Here are two examples:--"Alfred Mather, aged
about 33, no fixed home and no occupation, latterly on the tramp. Found
ill on a seat opposite Temple Gardens, and taken by the police to Bear
Yard Infirmary five days before death. Died from epilepsy accelerated by
exposure." "Jos. Lucas, no fixed abode, 'knocked up and down mostly,'
getting odd coppers when he could, found dead in yard of White Hart,
Royton." Such incidents might be multiplied, but the facts of disease
and death are masked, because people suffering from illness in the
street usually obtain pity. Recent statistics show that the percentage
of the death rate in common lodging-houses is appalling. (See Appendix
IX., Vagrancy Report.) No one who has been in a tramp ward can fail to
have been struck by the low vitality and even serious illness of
inmates, yet by common report it is difficult to obtain the services of
a doctor, and illness is constantly taken to be "malingering."
With regard to evidence as to actual tramp ward conditions, however, no
clearer account can be given than the following. The writer is
personally known to the author of this paper. He is extremely truthful,
and where investigation has followed, his statements have been fully
endorsed. They furnish most valuable evidence. He is himself a working
man of superior education, driven by misfortune into restless habits and
occasionally to the tramp ward. Let him speak for himself.
VI. TRAMP WARD. FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS.
EXTRACTS FROM A CORRESPONDENCE WITH A WORKING MAN.
"I was an interested listener to your address on casual wards and
common lodging-houses. Your experience coincides with mine, with
the exception of the casual wards. Your description was much too
favourable.
"I have been in several. This is an account of the last one I was
in. After walking twenty miles with nothing to eat before I
started or during the day, I was received, had a bath, and was put
to bed. They gave me nothing to eat or drink; out next morning at
six o'clock: for breakfast had a drink of water and a tinful of
broken crusts, seven pieces in all, and I should say not more than
six ounces. I suppose they had been left by the children or at the
infirmaries. Same for dinner (six pieces), with a small piece of
cheese; for supper, water and five crusts. On going out next
morning, water and six crusts. I should put the value at one penny
altogether, and that for cheese; the bread was simply waste.
"This is what I did for the value I received, Sweep, wash, and
scrub out twelve or fourteen cells; ditto eighty-seven square
yards of cement flooring; ditto a flight of stone steps (about
fifty), four feet wide with three landings; ditto one bath-room
and two lavatories; clean bath and closet pans; and polish
sixty-seven sets of brasses. I started at seven o'clock and had
done at 4.30, and was then locked up in the cell. I forgot to say
that I had twopence when I went in, which the porter annexed,
which, as he said, 'would help pay expenses.'
"I was free from vermin when I went in, but was not when I came
out; and whatever the chairman may say about coming out of their
place clean, I say it is impossible to do so.
"I may say that I get my living on public works, and this as you
know may take you across the country."
SECOND LETTER.
"The remarks made by your chairman on stone-breaking were very
misleading. He said, 'The stones required to be broken by a man
were ten hundredweight. Why, he knew a man who could easily break
two and a half yards in a day, and in each yard was twenty-two
hundredweight, so that his hearers could see that the casual's
task was not hard.'
"He did not say that the stones his man broke were probably twice
the size of those broken by the casual, and that he had no grid to
put them through, which takes almost as long as the actual
stone-breaking.
"With regard to entering the casual ward early, I myself when I am
on the road always make a point of doing twenty miles a day. Is a
man after doing twenty miles fit for work? Navvies and men
working on public works like to get from one job to another
without delay. Very often a man will start, we will say from
Yorkshire to Devon: if he can pick up a day's work on the way he
will do so; but his object is to get to Devon, and he is going to
get there as soon as possible. He is pretty certain of work when
he gets there because he is known either to the ganger or the
agent, or some one in a position to start him, which is really the
reason he goes such a distance. As a rule he sets himself twenty
or twenty-five miles a day, and he does it unless it is very wet.
He therefore wants a rest at the end of the journey, not work."
Replying that this was not the class for whom the casual ward was
intended, I received the following:--
THIRD LETTER.
"I should suggest, for the benefit of the man looking for work,
that in all casual wards there should be cells set apart for him
at a charge, say of threepence per night. He should be taken in as
early as six o'clock and let go next morning at six o'clock; if
there is any work going he would stand a chance of getting it: you
would not be pauperising him--he would be no charge on the rates,
and your pauper returns would be greatly reduced. Very likely the
argument would be that the guardians would be interfering with
private rights, _i.e._ lodging-houses. In answer to this, I have
to say that in a great many towns there are no lodgings of any
kind, and in others they are so bad that no decent man will sleep
in them. I have paid for a bed in such places as Birkenhead,
Chester, Wrexham, and others, and after seeing what they were like
have left them, not caring to sleep there. Also the lodging-house
keepers, if they found the new system reducing their takings,
would waken up to the fact that decent beds may bring them their
trade back.
"Many a man is spent up when he left a job to look for another,
because if money is found on him in the workhouse he loses it.
Give him the opportunity of paying and he will do so if he can get
a _decent bed_.
"As regards those on the road who can work but will not, the
authorities would not be interfering with the liberty of the
subject in taking them off the road and making them work for their
keep, and in doing so he need not be classed as a pauper.
"There are others who cannot work, old men and women and children;
in all cases such as these I should have them sent to the place of
birth, no matter how long they had left there they must go back.
There would be a chance of reclaiming them when they knew they had
to go back, and there would also be an inducement for their
friends and relations to show what they are made of by helping to
keep them. Of course there are numbers who do not know where they
are born, also foreigners; these the Government should take in
hand. It's the policy of the Government to let destitute
foreigners land here, you must therefore make them responsible for
them.
"These suggestions could be easily worked out to the satisfaction
of the people at large; you would rescue a great number from
self-imposed misery; you would be clearing the roads of a disgrace
to the country; and I have not the slightest doubt that you would
do away with a great deal of disease and crime. I have noticed on
more than one occasion that when small-pox has broken out in a
part of the country it has been reported that the cause has been
traced to tramps.
"I remember going in at T ... when several of us were in the
bath-room at one time, and of course one hot water for all. I
noticed one man who had stripped was covered with sores, raw,
festering sores. I did not object to his bathing, but of course
refused to be bathed in the same water. After drawing the
attention of the attendant to the man's state he was sent off
without his bath; he was given the usual rugs, which of course
were placed with the others next morning, and not stoved, because
they have no stove there. This man had been going from place to
place, and could not get to see a doctor, he told me himself, and
I can well believe him. I have had occasion to ask for the doctor
myself and have been refused.[30] Also on this night there were
more tramps than they had room for, we had to sleep two in a cell,
one on the board let down from the wall, and the other on the
floor underneath. In the cell next me one of the men wanted to go
to the w.c., but could get no answer to his repeated calls. Now
under these circumstances if disease breaks out who is to blame?
"I think that if the rules laid down by the L.G.B. were strictly
carried out things would be better, but there is too much left to
the discretion of the guardians, which means the workhouse master
and his subordinates, with the result that they do pretty much as
they please.
"I think it is generally allowed by guardians that the most
successful master is the one who can keep down the number of
casuals. Why that is I do not know, because if a man is found
sleeping out or begging he goes to prison. I have never been in a
prison myself, but from what I hear I should say that he is better
off than the man under the thumb of a workhouse master.[31]
"It ought to be generally known that it is only by starvation and
heavy tasks that a master can keep down his pauper returns. In
passing I should like to say that I have found it a pretty general
thing for several men to go through one lot of water."
* * * * *
After travelling from Kent to Devon, finding employment very bad (winter
1904-5) correspondent came north. He travelled to East Yorkshire to a
harvest job where he was expected, but found the harvest short and only
got two days. He found that numbers of men who usually found harvest
employment could not obtain it, and that hard-working men were roaming
from place to place, and, being forced to take refuge in the tramp ward,
were fast losing heart. The following is his experience in a tramp ward,
where he was forced to take refuge one rainy day. Usually he slept in
the open.
FOURTH LETTER.
"On going in you have your bread, and before you have time to eat
it you are taken to the room for undressing. This is not very
large, only for nine or ten to sit down, and there were many that
night. You will see that room was limited. There were two
dirty-looking baths there, but how many made use of them I could
not say. I did not. Your clothes are tied into a bundle and put
all together into a heap in the room you undress in. Your clothes
may be good and clean and free from vermin when you undress, but
what will they be like in the morning?
"You have a shirt and two rugs given you, and go to the sleeping
room on the boards. Some have a board for their head. I had not.
It is a large room, and it need be, for there were twenty-four of
us in it. It is infested with bugs. The shirts and rugs, I should
say, have not been washed for months, and are full of vermin. Mine
was, and the complaint was general, so I suppose they were all
alike. Sleep is impossible. You get up, have your bread and cold
water, and are put on the pump, eight on and eight off, every
half-hour. There are two pumps kept continually going all day, so
it cannot be for the want of water that dirt reigns supreme.
Cheese and bread for dinner, bread _and bread_ for supper, and
then the awful night to go through again. Get up and have some
bread and water. Then you are turned out. It was raining in
torrents. I was soaked in twenty minutes after I had left."
Walking north in the vain search for work, my correspondent crossed to
Lancashire and encountered the following experience.
FIFTH LETTER.
"I was admitted at 8.10. They gave me coffee and bread, and sent
me to a very nice large and well-ventilated room, a room large
enough to sleep fifteen men in easily. There were three others
there, and after waiting till nine o'clock, during which time nine
more arrived, they started bathing us. There are four baths there,
three for each bath, and how many more after used the same water I
do not know. Given a shirt, you are sent to the cells. I noticed
on going to mine that there were eleven cells on the right, and
nine on the left. My cell was four from the top on the left. The
right side was full, and the three on the left above mine also
full. I noticed three pairs of boots outside each cell; a
pleasant prospect. There were two men already in my cell. I made
the third. That made forty-five men for the fifteen cells, then
there were the eleven men I left in the bath-room, who would fill
four others, that would make fifty-six men in nineteen cells. Now
when I tell you that these cells are four feet six inches wide,
and my two comrades were bigger men than me, and I am not a small
one, you can fancy the situation. What I suffered from cramp alone
was punishment enough for a lifetime. You have one rug each, not
enough to keep you from coming in contact with the other men's
flesh. As soon as you are in the door is closed and you are in
black darkness, yet the gas is burning in the passage all night. I
could see it by the crack in the door, and if they would cut a
hole in the door it would serve both for ventilation and light.
"I can safely say that I had never such a night in my life. Sleep
was out of the question, even if you had not been disturbed by the
groans and curses that were going on more or less all night, a
sort of song you would fancy they sing in the Inferno.
"One of my mates was an old man. He had been drinking. Some one
had given him a couple of pints of 1-1/2_d_. beer, and I suppose
he had had an empty stomach, anyway he said it upset him.
'Diarrhoea,' he called it. Now the foul air arising from other
causes was bad enough, but when I tell you."... Here follows a
description of consequences. "The old man said it was useless to
call to the attendant, he had been in before." When at 5.30 the
door was opened it was only to fetch rugs and shirts. Permission
to leave the cell or empty the vessel was refused by two
attendants, and also to men in other cells. "It's a mercy I did
not go off my head," my correspondent remarks concerning that
horrible night.
"The second attendant also brutally refusing to allow the vessel
to be removed 'because it was against rules,' said 'it would do to
go with the ham and eggs.'
"'Ham and eggs' in the shape of coffee and bread appeared at seven
o'clock, and those who could consume it had to do so in that
atmosphere of horror. We were kept locked up until about 8.20, and
then let out. I shall never forget the feeling in all my life.
"I have noticed on more than one occasion that when small-pox has
broken out in various parts of the country, that it has been taken
there by tramps. Now supposing small-pox broke out in a place
having such a tramp ward, who would be to blame?
"The guardians cannot say they had not the room, there is the room
I have mentioned. There were another row of cells I noticed, about
twenty, that had the appearance of being unoccupied. There were
certainly some of them empty; the doors of others were closed so I
cannot say if all were, but that can easily be found out.
"There were thirty-four men kept in, and about twenty of us were
sent to the wood-yard. I had asked to see a doctor. I was too ill
to work, but was told to go to the yard. I went but did nothing. I
could not. I felt I had not the strength of a baby, and had a hard
matter to keep on my feet.
"At about ten o'clock the labour master came round. At least he
was pointed out to me as the labour master, but as I did not see
him again all day, I doubted it. Anyhow he asked me what I was
doing; I told him I could do nothing, and wanted to see the
doctor. He told me that I was a malingerer and that I should not
see the doctor. 'Doctors are not for such as thou,' says he, and
that I should have no dinner. I asked him to send me before a
magistrate: I would have done a month gladly if I could have made
this statement before a magistrate. I had forgotten to mention the
state of the cell; it was very damp and coated with dirt and spit,
quite enough to spread disease.
"Although I was to have no dinner, I was given some, but gave it
away, as I could eat nothing until I was coming out next morning.
I did not work till the afternoon, when I felt a little better and
very cold. I thought I would see what I could do, but I could not
do much. At 4.30 o'clock work ceased and we had a roll each.
Afterwards I noticed that a number of men crowded round the door
leading to the cells. Thinking there was something in it, I got as
near the door as possible. At 5.30 this door opened. The rush of
boys on opening the doors of a penny gaff was not in it. It turned
out that on the second night there are two rooms to be slept in,
each containing nine bedsteads, hence the rush. The first eighteen
would get them--I was the lucky eighteenth.
"There were thirteen in the room I was in--four on the floor. I
could not say if the remainder slept in the other room or not; I
had a better night than the one previous. We were up at 5.30, and
after having roll and coffee were let out at 7.30.
"I see some of the northern counties are holding a conference,
under the chairmanship of Sir John Hibbert, in order to study the
vagrant problem, and he quoted the punishment of vagrants in Henry
VIII.'s time. I think if Sir John had studied the matter he would
have seen that at that time vagrants were favourably dealt with in
comparison with their betters. There was many a better head than
even Sir John's stuck on Temple Bar for only saying what they
thought.
"One of the favourite complaints at this conference will be the
burden to the ratepayers, and the cost of their maintenance will
be supplied to them by the various union masters. Now, how does it
work out?
"The thirty-four men who were kept for the two nights and a day
had 170 rolls, thirty-four portions of cheese, and 102 lots of
coffee. This during a year would mean a considerable sum. For
this the ratepayers think they would have to do a day's work--but
do they? There were twenty-two men put to wood sawing, and here I
assert, if the whole of the wood cut during the day had been
equally divided between these men, and given to them as a task, it
could have been done in two hours. Now, why were these men kept in
their cells from 5.30 to 8.20?--why were they not sent to the
labour yard at six o'clock and worked for this two hours, given
their breakfast, and sent about their business? The ratepayer
would have the same amount of work done, and have saved the price
of 102 rolls and thirty-four lots of coffee, and thirty-four
portions of cheese. To give an instance of the work done. There
were two men nearest me who started to saw a sleeper with a
cross-cut saw at nine o'clock, they had not finished at three
o'clock, and the old man took one away, and I helped to finish it
myself. This was the style of work all round, there is no task
there; the old man in charge is an inmate and is laughed at, and
they do what they like. The professionals dearly love a day's rest
and an extra night's rest, and the working man is not going to do
much for no pay if he can help it.
"If you want to study the ratepayer, take a man in a night, turn
him out after two hours' work, he will have earned his twopenny
feed in that time, and it does not cost more. You will give the
man looking for work a chance, you will reduce the number of
casuals, for you will soon break the professional tramp's heart,
and greatly relieve the ratepayer.
"In conclusion, may I say that if you consulted half a dozen men
who understood the game, you may be able to solve the tramp
problem."
VII. THE COMMON LODGING-HOUSE.
Before we can pass in review the results of investigation into the
working of the tramp ward, it is necessary to correlate with it the
examination of the common lodging-house. It is not sufficient to look on
the tramp ward as a _deterrent from vagrancy_; it is evident from the
evidence already given that it most imperfectly fulfils another
function, namely, that of a _refuge for wayfarers in extremity_.
How is it that such a need has arisen? It has arisen from a
little-considered change in social customs, which has gradually led to
accumulating evils. In old times there was a double provision for
travelling, for rich and poor, the hospitality of the abbey and that of
"mine host" at the inn. When the abbey was suppressed, more must have
devolved on the inn. Accommodation there could be found both for rich
and poor, though that for the latter might be only a bed of straw.[32]
But by degrees, as travelling became common, the rich absorbed the
accommodation of the inn, which itself evolved from "hostel" into
"hotel," and catered for the rich only. A travelling poor man therefore
was put to it to find some other shelter. Hospitality is most freely
exercised still by the very poor. By degrees some individual became
known as willing to entertain strangers for a small charge, and so by
degrees also evolved the _common lodging-house_. A description of one
such formed by natural evolution will be found in Chap. II., pp. 97 _et
seq._ It was simply an old house, probably once a farmhouse, now
situated in a slum quarter of a northern town. The sanitary arrangements
for numerous lodgers were a sink in the common kitchen, and a w.c.,
perfectly dry, and in a dreadful condition. The house was kept by a
widow woman, who could exercise no effective control over the motley
inmates. Men, women and children were crowded in the dormitory,
separation of sexes being quite insufficient. Insect pests abounded, and
cleanliness was but of a surface character. Yet this, and one reputed to
be worse, constituted the only accommodation for working-class
travellers, men and _women_, in a fairly large town.
Investigation in another direction, on the main route from Manchester to
the south, revealed a similar state of things. The "best lodging-house
in the town" contained no separate sitting-room for women, and a small
sink without water laid on was all the accommodation for washing
purposes. This was in the common kitchen, and water had to be fetched
from the single men's room. The bed slept on was infested with
vermin.[33] A London investigation revealed that similar accommodation,
which in the north cost 4_d_., cost 6_d_. A description is given by a
male investigator of the state of such a lodging-house. The common
sitting-room was a half-cellar with a concrete floor, very dirty,
_débris_ of meals and dust were just swept under the tables. Spitting
was in evidence everywhere. In the dormitory of another a notice was
posted that "Gentlemen are requested not to go to bed in their boots!"
Nevertheless it was evidently not obeyed. The state of the beds was such
that my informant left without trying them. (See Chap. VII., p. 257.)[34]
It is true that a somewhat perfunctory "inspection" is supposed to
enforce sanitation. But inspection is insufficient where the
accommodation is not of the right kind to begin with, and it appears to
be easily evaded. The fact is that it is not to private interest to
provide anything but _minimum_ requirements. Nor is it likely that
there will be _sufficient_ accommodation for the maximum demand. It is
reckoned "lucky" to get into some lodging-houses if you apply even as
early as seven o'clock for a bed. It is quite possible to be crowded
out.
Dr. Cooper, of the London County Council, said recently:
"No civic community ought to allow what is going on at the present
time. No man can afford to build really good lodging-houses,
because the return for his money is so small. This is a public
danger, both as regards the safety of the streets, and also the
character of those who are unfortunately homeless." He thinks that
"the whole of the outcasts should be absorbed into London County
Council shelters."
The following is an account of the state of things at a lodging-house
_repeatedly warned_:--"The floors of the kitchens and bedrooms were in a
very dirty state. The beds and clothing were very dirty and
insufficient. The bedding was so filthy that on the lodging-house
keeper's attention being called to it he took the sheets off and put
them in the fireplace."[35] Defendant was fined £3 and costs, but the
lodging-house was not suppressed.
Such places as this breed disease, yet an honest working man travelling
with money in his pocket to pay for his bed cannot be _sure_ of a
cleanly place. Even in a _municipal_ lodging-house there may be only
"surface cleanliness." (See Chap. II., p. 33.) _Every one not sanitary
is a centre of contagion._
There exists even in the mind of such social adepts as Mr. John Burns, a
prejudice against "Rowton Houses," and other "poor men's hotels,"
possibly grounded on the supposition that they cater for and encourage
the life of vice and idleness. But the fact is one that cannot be
denied, that in the present precarious condition of things these masses
of homeless men exist. It would seem more sensible to bring them under
effective sanitary control, and by investigation of their needs remove,
if possible, obstacles to matrimony than to condemn them to
insanitation, disease, and death. The following account gives an inner
view of a Rowton House. It is not to be supposed that the majority of
inmates would _prefer_ such a life, if only they knew a way out.
"It is possible to live there fairly comfortable on 10_s_. a week,
and to exist on about 7_s_. Of course, there are all kinds of men
there; some of them have known considerably better days. A lot are
working men. A lot of men there seem to live by addressing
envelopes; they have a nice warm room to sit in and work, but it
is a heart-breaking job when all is said and done, for they only
get 3_s_. per 1,000, and it will take a good man to do 1,000 a
day. I made a good many enquiries about labour bureaux; they are
to be avoided like poison, except the Polytechnic, the others keep
you moving about the place, and you are lucky if you don't get
charged heavily for doing so." The isolation and selfishness of
the life impressed my informant. It was by no means one to be
sought.
It will at any rate be seen that the question of absolute destitution
and the question of provision for migration are bound up with the
question of proper sanitary lodging-house accommodation. Before a
travelling working man, even with money in his pocket, there lie at
present three alternatives:--
1. He can find a common lodging-house, which means too often dirt, or
worse.
2. He can enter the tramp ward. To do this he must make away with his
money or hide it. He will, it is _supposed_, get clean accommodation,
but endure hardship and degradation.
3. He may "sleep out." This is best; if he can find a cosy corner he can
"keep himself to himself," and sleep clean. But it is _illegal_. Numbers
of men are condemned all over England even in the depth of winter for
this offence.[36] Unauthorised promiscuous herding in the open, such as
occurs on Manchester brickfields, is a grave social evil. "A night on
the Thames Embankment" is hardly an "earthly paradise." But neither is a
night in a doss house or a tramp ward. It will be seen that there is
_real need_ for social provision of shelter for the homeless or
migrating poor.
VIII. SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION.
We may summarise results as follows: