VAGRANCY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.
If you stand, in the clear fresh dawn of an early summer morning, on a
hill-top in the northern country where I live, and look towards the
dawn, you see outspread before you a wide stretch of bare green hills,
intersected by the dark stone lines of fields. Your eye follows
caressingly each dip and fold of the bosom of Mother Earth, beautiful in
bareness, the outline clear against the sky. In each nook and hollow lie
grey patches, clumps of stone houses, witnesses to human habitation, and
blue spires of smoke ascend revealing the hidden lights of homes. From
each group arises the tall spire of a mill chimney, not yet belching
smoke, and in the valley cluster the giant mills of to-day, each larger
than his brother. As the eye takes in each feature, the mind can by a
"bird's-eye view" reconstruct history. There far away is the hill top
whereon our Celtic forefathers worshipped when all the British were rude
dwellers on hills and in dales--_Short shrift to the vagrant of another
tribe in those days!_ There, over yonder hill, lies a Roman camp, to
which leads an old Roman road, civilisation was imposed on barbarism;
now roads intersect the landscape on every side. With communication
comes travel, and the vagrant becomes possible. But _vagrancy is not a
problem of unsettled and warlike times_.
On yonder hillsides, if the snow lay thinly on them, you could trace
even now by disused furrows the patches of arable land, amid fields for
pasture, lying round each little clump of houses, speaking of the day of
village communities and communal rights. Between the scattered hamlets
lay wide stretches of moor. There would then exist survivals of the past
savagery, nomads living a wild life like gipsies; or the marks of the
new era, pilgrims bound to shrines making use of the roads, roving
soldiers, travelling merchants, here and there a vagrant, made so
probably by crime, slipping out of his place in society, but _with all
the wide stretches of country between villages to choose from if he
would_. Such a man, an involuntary vagrant, was looked on with
suspicion, his hand against every man. Bands might gather and live in
the forests, like Robin Hood and his merry men.
But yet again, you may watch in thought the spread of those grey lines
which speak of ownership of the soil. The village sucks in the
surrounding country, the very moors become enclosed, _small space is
left for the nomad life_.
Watch! The clustering cottages develop into industrial communities,
yonder village bears a name borrowed from Holland, and there still stand
the loom cottages empty of looms. Now the landscape is crowded with
busy hives of industry, town and country go hand in hand, the farmer and
the weaver live side by side or combine the two occupations. Agriculture
gives place to pasture for sheep, as wool is needed. The displaced
husbandman, after a period of restlessness _in which the vagrant problem
first arose_, settles to weaving or kindred industry. None need now
wander save by choice, from hereditary nomad taste for liberty, and the
bold life of soldier, sailor, or smuggler lies open for such.
But again comes change. The small grey mill rises in the landscape, the
clustering village becomes the small town, houses thicken, land grows
scarce--what now is to become of the nomad? _He must "take to the road"
for nowhere else is left him._ Society no longer wants him, and barely
tolerates him. Hospitality, a virtue of scattered communities, dwindles
to--the Tramp Ward!! He must needs, if he would travel, turn to prey on
the communities who will not recognise him otherwise. He becomes hawker,
tinker, pedlar, beggar and thus in his turn acquires a trade. We might
let him survive as an interesting relic of the past, and die a natural
death, by the catching and cultivation of his children.
But hark! A sudden noise breaks the stillness of morning. A noise like
nothing else on earth, a whistle and a boom combined. It is the
"buzzer." The landscape has changed again, and there, the landmark of
_the Industrial Revolution_, stands the giant mill; and now comes a
rush of human life, clank, clank, clank, the stream of mill-hands in
clattering wooden clogs is hastening to work. It is the daily _migration
of labour_, the tide morning and night ebbs and flows. Yet no two days
will the stream be alike. Accident, sickness, misfortune, or fault, will
each day leave some units stranded, and others take their place, and if
you look you see another feature in the landscape, a long line of
railway stretches as a link for swift travel between town and town. Here
is something _altogether new_. These human units, divorced from native
communities, cannot be expected to be readily anchored, and accordingly
you see around each ancient community and interspersed with it, crowds
of workmen's cottages, _each a tent rather than a home_, taken to-day,
and left in a month or two. If you could uncover life and watch it as
you do an anthill, you would find that it had attained a new and fresh
activity. On every side Humanity is becoming organic. Huge
conglomerations which we call cities blacken whole stretches of country,
and the feature of the life of most men is _daily migration_. By train,
tram, or road, tides of humanity move to toil; every holiday sees crowds
covering green fields in pleasure parties, or transported by train. The
whole of life has grown _migratory_. Is it not evident that we have here
not the ancient problem of the _Tramp_, but the _modern_ problem of the
_Fluidity of labour_! To expect our Tramp Ward--the _repressive
provision of a stationary society_ for the sparse survivals of a
previous age--to cope with the needs of _Migration of Labour_ is about
as reasonable as it would be to expect the ancient windmill to grind
corn for our modern population!
Let us examine the new state of things in reference to that citadel of
national life--_the home_. I shall place before you the problem in a
startling light, if I ask you whether the present Vagrancy problem is
not to a large extent _the disintegration of the home_; and whether,
therefore, we are not face to face with the root problem on which the
very existence of our civilisation depends, since _by the preservation
or extinction of the home a nation stands or falls_.
Right down through all the changes but the last, you would have found
the population mainly stationary. Even now the existence of local names,
so widely spread that you may have fourteen or fifteen families in a
small district of the same surname, reveals the remains of the
stationary life. But for good or for evil it has gone. Examine any
family you like and it will be the exception to find it whole.
Individuals are scattered far and wide when up-grown, perhaps in
England, perhaps over the world. Only the stagnating slum population is
stationary. And this is not their virtue. If they had a little more
initiative they would not stagnate; they form a _pool_ of underfed and
ill-paid labour, and constitute by far the largest part of the modern
problem of the unemployed. The alert and well-trained workman is
_migratory_--at the news of a "better shop" he will be off to another
town, with or without wife and family. The young man will desert the
country side to try his luck in some great centre--the girl may go to
service. We no longer _expect_ families to stay whole. Greater freedom
has brought greater travel, and a relaxing of the bonds of parental
discipline. Our streets are crowded nightly by the young, on whom the
restless activity of our age has taken such effect that they cannot and
will not seek sleep till evening is far advanced. The very "day of rest"
is a day of travel.
What is the result of all this increase of migration? The old inn has
become the modern hotel, the occasional "apartment to let" has
multiplied a thousand-fold, the seaside resort has sprung up with
apparatus of pier and promenade, since we must move about even on a
holiday. The whole world is on wheels or on a walking tour. But what
about the destitute pedestrian? Is it fair to dub him a _tramp_? Travel
he must if he is to live, but truly he is between Scylla and Charybdis.
For, unmoored from home and friends, he has on the one side the tender
mercies of the Tramp Ward, which are often cruel, and on the other the
horrors of the common lodging-house. Society hustles him hither and
thither, throwing him a dole; or offering him a prison, if he ventures
to sleep out. He can hardly exist at all, unless he is clever enough to
prey on the community; he becomes a bundle of rags, fain to lie all
night in a London park, or sleep near a brick-kiln. It is "hard lines."
If he would die out quietly it would be all right for Society; he would
not be missed, no one wants him, and this he feels bitterly. But,
unfortunately, his class, in the absence of any provision of Society for
his needs, is constantly being recruited. _It is no longer a question of
the suppression of hereditary vagrancy._ The vagrant class is
microscopic by the side of the _stranded inefficient labourer_, who
recruits the necessarily migratory class of the "unemployed." Unless
Society will take into account this new factor, it will be the worse for
Society. For _every member of a community who is not living a wholesome
life is a danger to it_, and the increase and propagation of an
underfed, ill-bred, uneducated offspring is the menace of civilisation.
Let me sound the alarm note as loud as I can, for already evil has gone
far. While we have been elaborating costly tramp wards, erecting baths
and stoving apparatus, and frightening the genuine tramp away, common
lodging-houses have been increasing on every side. The following is the
testimony of the Rev. Arthur Dale, of Manchester, and it is not one whit
exaggerated:--"The men who habitually live there are almost universally
morally bad. Many are married, but have left their wives and families;
nearly all are the victims of drink. A few, but very few, are honest.
Some are idle, and profess their inability to get up early enough to go
to work. Some will work for a day or two and then 'slack.' There are
large numbers out of work simply for this cause. Fornication and
gambling are both practised largely."[152] Yet in every large town these
men are now counted by hundreds, sometimes by thousands, every night.
Has not the disintegration of the home proceeded very far? For, by
common experience, prosecutions for child maintenance and separation
orders as between husband and wife are granted daily, and with terrible
facility the marriage bond is practically annulled, and yet the
individual is not freed. What is the consequence? The man removes to
another town and lives in nominal celibacy. Vice and idleness may make
him a _tramp_. He can no longer have a home; for if he takes a partner
and rears children they have all the fatal taint of illegitimacy, they
will not respect or obey him. The whole of our lower working class is
thus becoming leavened with immorality. And what about the woman? The
life and death of our nation depends on an awakening to the gravity of
the menace that threatens the true home on every side. An unstable
society has brought about fear. People fear to fall out of employment
and be thrust down into the abyss, and hence the custom of _limitation
of family_, with all its consequences, is spreading to the upper stratum
of the working classes. I cannot recall any one of the many respectable
young couples I have known married during the last sixteen years with a
large family of living children. Fear has also _postponed marriage_,
except in the improvident. Many spend the flower of their youth in
gathering for a home. The improvident alone rush to marriage as boys and
girls, and rear an unhealthy offspring, to whom they can never teach
self-control.
Hence to the _male_ vagrant problem is added the corresponding half, the
_female_. Since the balance of the sexes is in England already against
women, _what becomes of those who in our large towns correspond to the
hundreds or thousands of men who live in lodging-houses or lodgings,
homeless_? The answer has been becoming ever more plain to me, but it
has only been demonstrated by personal suffering. I could not have
believed had I not seen. Our streets contain an army of prostitutes, and
there has arisen over against the male problem a vast female problem
with which our increasing Homes and Refuges and Shelters are unable to
cope. _The correlative of the male wanderer is the female prostitute._ A
woman must "get her living," and she does it "on the streets." The man
who should support her honourably as a wife is himself a wanderer,
afraid to incur family ties, but bound by no wholesome home influence to
self-restraint. In 1904 I spent three nights in so-called respectable
female lodging-houses.[153] They contained between them close on a
hundred women, and, with few exceptions, they were all living by
prostitution. The hour when a decent woman retires found almost all
perambulating the streets. No rest was possible till the early morning,
as at all hours they were admitted, many of them drunk. Those not
admitted spent the night in hotels, or in some of those "furnished rooms
for married couples," which are multiplying in districts near common
lodging-houses with fatal rapidity.
Men and women are making fortunes out of this state of things. To my
knowledge, a man who was a barman is said now to own sixteen
_lodging-houses_, and a cobbler has risen to be proprietor of lodgings
for 600 and _two public-houses_. A man can rent a house at 4_s_., and
get a little furniture in, and can then let _each room_ for more than
the house-rent per week. To places like this drift many young men or
women who are stranded far away from home. A girl gets out of a
situation; she seeks a women's lodging-house, and if she enters one
where the management connives or winks at vice, in three weeks, or less,
she may be manufactured into a full-blown prostitute. This state of
things is such as should shock every right-thinking English man and
woman. In one street in a northern town a young man of eighteen, fresh
from home, who was with a companion who unfortunately "knew too much,"
passed in a short walk seventy-five prostitutes. With these problems on
our hands in such magnitude, can we stop to tinker at our Tramp Ward
and ask if we are to amend it by giving coffee instead of gruel? The
wonder is that any one seeks it; that it is used at all shows the stern
pressure of destitution more than anything else. For, as I have stated,
and must state repeatedly, the Tramp Ward is itself a factor in national
degradation, the mockery of a provision for need; meaning often
semi-starvation, weary toil and unrest. A man or woman _must_ emerge
from it more unfit for toil, and learn to avoid such a place if possible
in future. The tramp uses it as an occasional disinfectant; the genuine
working man or woman who is stranded may be forced into it temporarily
and learn to be a _tramp_. Mr. Long recently stated that not more than
25 per cent. of the vagrants of the country were in any way within reach
of the Local Government Board. The remainder were not paupers, for
somehow or other they got a living for themselves. I believe his
percentage is too high, owing to the number who simply _sample_ a Tramp
Ward and never again enter it. A recent census in Lancashire revealed
that out of 936 persons reported only thirty-three were habitual
vagrants.[154] Why should they go there? A man who "keeps" (?) a woman
can live in idleness on the produce of her industry or sin; a woman can
live "on the streets." This has a great deal to do with two features of
present-day life--the number of incorrigibly idle, worthless men, who
apparently can exist to loaf and drink, side by side with _the
deplorable increase of drunkenness among women_.
I am convinced that many of the lower public-houses simply play into the
hands of the harlot, and that the marked development of the public-house
is due to the homelessness of our people. Alderman Thompson has pointed
out in "The Housing Handbook" the existence of a universal house famine.
He says: "Putting the case in its simplest form, we find, in the first
place, that if every room, good and bad, occupied or unoccupied, in all
the workmen's dwellings in the country be reckoned as existing
accommodation, there are not enough _of any sort_ to house the working
population without unhealthy overcrowding.... In the second place, we
find that, so far from new rooms being built in sufficient quantities to
make up the deficiency, there is a distinct lessening in the rate of
increase" ("Housing Handbook," W. Thompson, pp. 1-2). This _total_
overcrowding accounts for the pressure on Shelters and common
lodging-houses and tramp wards. Numbers in London are _refused
admission_ to tramp wards; numbers sleep out.[155] Inevitably the class
that can pay least, or cannot pay at all, will be crowded out, if house
accommodation is scanty, and this will especially be the case with the
migrating "out-of-work" who has no particular claim on any one. Even if
he has money in his pocket, it is difficult to say whether he is not in
as grave danger, moral and sanitary, if forced to be a lodger in some
already overcrowded home, as if forced into the common lodging-house.
Like a sponge, a slum neighbourhood sucks up by overcrowding in winter
those who in summer obtain varied occupation far and wide. Is it any
wonder that the children of such overcrowded homes, deprived of the joys
of nature, succumb to the attractions of the brilliantly lighted street?
If the predatory female nightly angles there, in all the attraction of
her tawdry finery; if large numbers of men, divorced from home ties, are
there to be angled for, and money can freely be obtained, the customary
"drink" being proffered; what wonder if the home itself becomes insipid,
if the husband seeks the flaring and enticing public-house or not less
fatal club, and the wife seeks _him_--or some other man--in the same
places, while the children, never at home if they can help it (for home
means unpleasantness, or inconvenient toil), walk out with one another
in the dangerous thoroughfare, and learn in mere boyhood and girlhood
the fascination of passion without responsibility?
How must we face such grave national issues? _The home must be made the
centre of all our thought, the focus of national consciousness._ We must
educate each boy and girl to be primarily father and mother; we must
worship at the cradle of the child. The _community_ must assume
fatherhood and motherhood, and enforce a right conception of their
duties on its subsidiary units. To counteract the restlessness of modern
life we must make of our Fatherland a Home, where every man, woman and
child will be rightly cared for, disciplined if need be, but embraced in
the wide brotherhood of Humanity.
We cannot turn back the hour-glass of time and stay the new-born
activity, but we can utilise the new energy of Humanity as we have
learned to utilise steam and electricity. The units divorced from true
use in our social system may, nay must, become a desolating flood,
unless we dig channels and build reservoirs, and so direct the living
stream back to the formation of true homes, utilising the resources of
the smiling acres of our native land, spreading out our cities, and
afforesting our barren moors.
The Fluidity of Labour is a fact that has come to stay. Modern
subdivided employment depends on _the ready supply at particular places
of necessary workmen_. If a man is destitute through remaining too long
where work is not to be had, he must travel, and we need to
_facilitate_, not to hinder, his rapid transit to the right place, and
to furnish him with all information as to whither he should go. We need
to provide him, in fair return for a moderate task of work, with bed and
board on the journey. _Except in exchange for work we should give
neither State aid nor charity to the traveller_, since, if he cannot
work enough to find bed and board, he belongs to the _incapable_, for
whom a special provision is required, or the "_won't work_" for whom
compulsion is best. The universal provision of a proper remedy for
migrating destitution would soon avail to sort men into the three
classes of _refractory_, _incapable_, or simply "_unemployed_." The
Relief station method of Germany is the key to the situation.
But the Relief station alone will not cope with the evil _unless the
common lodging-house is reformed from top to bottom_. It is necessary to
recognise the existence not only of _destitute_ homelessness, but of
_migratory_ homelessness. It is necessary to get into safe and sanitary
surroundings the whole of the outcasts who sleep out, and to purify our
parks and streets. One thousand four hundred and sixty-three men walking
London streets in one night constitute a social danger. In addition to
this we have on the same night 21,058 single men under the undesirable
conditions of the common lodging-house. London common lodging-houses are
only required to find 240 cubic feet of air for each lodger, as against
300 cubic feet in the provinces, and 350 cubic feet in an ordinary
dwelling house. Alderman Thompson says (p. 22): "Anything less than 350
cubic feet per head ought to result in a conviction before the most
reactionary justices." Add the number crowded into London slums, what an
army of homelessness!
The one thing in the finding of the Vagrancy Committee with which the
author does not agree is the stricture on Shelters. The Shelter reveals
the magnitude of the problem that is upon us. It is the provision that
has arisen over against this grave national danger. It is insufficient,
it is not always well managed. But _it is seldom less sanitary and well
managed than the common lodging-house_. The dangers it replaces are
largely out of sight, but they are none the less real. It is true that
the lowest class gravitate to the Shelter. Let us be thankful that it is
so. "Out of sight is out of mind," but not out of existence. How real
and keen the competition for bed and board is, is demonstrated by the
pressure on prisons. It has come to something serious in our national
history when the last social deterrent to crime has been removed and
_men seek prison as their only home_. Even girls "do not mind being
pinched," it "gives them a rest."[156]
It is absolutely necessary that good and sufficient Workmen's Homes,
municipal or State, should supersede the common lodging-house. Glasgow
has been able to make its seven lodging-houses, accommodating 2,166 men
and 248 women, pay a reasonable interest on capital. London has only
one, and accommodates but 324.[157] The cost per head of 68_l_. per bed,
as against 39_l_. per bed in Glasgow, militates against financial
success, though the charge is 6_d_. per night as against 3-1/2_d_. and
4-1/2_d_. Nevertheless receipts appear to more than cover expenditure
(2,942_l_. against 2,844_l_.), and the benefit to the community must be
reckoned an asset. London has 611 common lodging-houses, Manchester 268.
In Glasgow the provision of municipal lodging-houses has reduced the
total to 81; most of the old insanitary ones have disappeared, and those
newly built are superior even to the municipal ones. Thus Glasgow has
demonstrated the way out. The Glasgow Women's Lodging-house pays 5 per
cent., is orderly, closes at a decent hour, and is well managed and
sanitary. The pressure on its accommodation shows that another is
required, as women are turned away for want of room. Where do they
sleep?
It is not enough to receive destitute women into the workhouse. In every
town there is needed _some safe place for a working woman to sleep_, and
some provision of employment that will just earn bed and board to stand
between a struggling woman and vice. In every town there should be some
co-ordinating charitable institution, like the Citizens' Guild of Help,
or the Charity Organisation Society at its best, to link together the
benevolence of the district, to pass persons on to employment or to the
Poor-law authorities. _It is necessary to sound the depths of our
poverty problems, or our charity is unavailing._ It is necessary to
have compulsion at the bottom of our social system and apply it to the
wastrel.
For men we need at the back a graded system of colonies, such as is
described in Mr. Percy Alden's recent pamphlet on "Labour Colonies"
(price 1_d_., 1, Woburn Square, London, W.C.).
But the author is convinced that while such national reservoirs are
essential as a background, the real problems of poverty must be worked
out in connection with the _municipality_. Charity cannot cope with
accumulated national evil, neither can the State redress it. The State
can "way-bill" the migrating workman, can sift the mass of vagrancy and
apply "compulsion to work," can link labour bureaux, can reform the Poor
Law. But we possess, at present hardly tapped, a vast fund of local
patriotism. _It is to reconstructed civic life we must look for the
solution of civic problems_, the abolition of the slum, the education of
the child, the provision of "unemployed" capital to place "unemployed"
labour on "unemployed" land, and thereby convert "a trinity of waste
into a unity of production." A great step has been taken by the
Unemployed Act, however imperfect. The whole subject of unemployment the
author has dealt with in a book entitled "How to Deal with the
Unemployed" (Brown, Langham & Co.), and she regards the chapter on "The
Labour Market" as the key to the solution of the problem.
We shall have to recognise the maintenance of the home by the
recognition of the _droit au travail_--"the right to work"--in some form
or another. The streams of labour, which, if let loose in misery and
idleness, are destructive, can, if rightly husbanded, fertilise the
soil.
Grave as are the problems to be solved, menacing as is the danger if
reforms are neglected or delayed, I believe the Spirit of God which
created in the mind of our forefathers the ideal of the "_Commonwealth_"
will guide our national policy into right channels,
"True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home."
FOOTNOTES:
[152] It must be remembered that the largest cities attract such, and
form, as it were, cesspools of degeneration. The honest traveller may be
in some lodging-houses in larger proportion, but he has to herd with the
worst, or sleep out. See pp. 35-37.
[153] See Chap. V.
[154] See p. 19.
[155] See Minutes of Evidence before Vagrancy Committee, 10,482-10,492.
[156] See p. 213.
[157] Rowton Houses, however, accommodate large numbers of working men
APPENDIX I.
TRANSFER OF CASUALS TO POLICE SUPERVISION.
The placing of Casual Wards under police authority is a bold step, but
one of which the author thoroughly approves. The Report of the Committee
on Vagrancy was issued subsequently to the writing of this book. It is
in substantial agreement with the author's facts and opinions. The prime
necessity for a consistent and uniform national policy will be much
better met in the way proposed than by any mere _reform_ of the Tramp
Ward.
The policeman, by his constant contact with life of all kinds and by his
opportunities for observation, is much more fitted than the isolated
Poor-law official for wise treatment of "all sorts and conditions of
men." If women were still considered vagrants, grave evils might arise
from transfer of casual wards to police authorities. But if all
destitute women can at once claim the protection of the Workhouse, there
is no reason why the police should not deal with vagrancy.
Theoretically a destitute woman can at present enter the Workhouse, but
practically there are difficulties. She cannot claim entrance unless she
has slept a night in the town and can give her address. If she gives a
lodging-house address she would be presumed to be only suitable for the
Tramp Ward, if lately come to the town. It is but little considered how
much the ancient right of "settlement" continues to hamper the
administration of the Poor-law as a provision for destitution. A case
in point is as follows: A woman visiting her husband, from whom she had
been parted for years, was given in charge for drunkenness and got a
week's imprisonment. She lost her work in a neighbouring town, and
returning to her birthplace, being unable to find shelter, took refuge
in the Tramp Ward. Next morning she applied for admission to the
Workhouse, being quite destitute. The Relieving Officer told her to
apply to the Guardians _the following Wednesday_. It was then Friday.
What was she to do meanwhile? I have selected this incident because it
is not implied that the woman was "deserving," and it is evident that
the Relieving Officer was justified in using caution in the present
state of the law. Nevertheless, it illustrates the fact that _immediate
shelter pending inquiry_ is, in the case of women, a prime necessity.
Delays in admission, coupled with the fact that re-admission to the
Tramp Ward is discouraged, must often, in the case of women, be _fatal_.
Undoubtedly difficulties will arise in the course of transfer, but it is
probable that our whole Poor Law system and its relation to the
Municipality will be largely modified before long.
The change from an agricultural England to an industrial England and the
massing of population in large towns, calls for unification of authority
in our great industrial centres for effectual dealing with problems of
poverty. The proposed change is therefore to be welcomed as one step in
the right direction.
It will also solve the knotty problem as to the incidence of local
charges and national charges.
APPENDIX II.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF VAGRANCY COMMITTEE.
429. The following is a summary of the principal recommendations made by
the Vagrancy Committee.
CASUAL WARDS.
1. Wards to be placed under control of police authority (120-147).[158]
See Appendix I.
2. Existing buildings, where required, to be rented or purchased by
police authority (132-3). P. 74.
3. Superfluous wards to be discontinued (130, 133). P. 75.
4. Where practicable, existing officers of wards to be continued in
office (135).
5. Where wards adjoin or form part of the workhouse, arrangements to be
made with the guardians for supply of stores, heating, etc. (134).
6. Diet to be adequate, and provision to be made for mid-day meal on day
of discharge (95, 181, 308-10). Pp. 26, 75.
7. Task of work to be enforced, and to be a time task[159] (93, 148-9).
P. 76.
8. Detention to be for a minimum of two nights, except in case of men
with way-tickets (151-2, 180). P. 81.
9. Expenses of wards to be charged to the police fund (129, 136, 142).
Appendix I.
ASSISTANCE TO WORK-SEEKERS.
10. Tickets to be issued by the police to persons who are _bonâ fide_ in
search of work (178). P. 81.
11. The ticket to be for a definite route, and available only for a
month, with power to police to alter route if satisfied that this is
necessary (179, 182). P. 80.
12. The holder of a ticket to be entitled to lodging, supper and
breakfast at the casual ward, and to be able to leave as early as he
desires after performing a small task (179-80). Pp. 75, 80.
13. The holder of a ticket to have a ration of bread and cheese for
mid-day meal given him on leaving the casual ward in the morning (181).
P. 67.
14. Information as to work in the district to be kept at casual wards
and police stations for assistance of work-seekers (184-5). Pp. 75,
76.
VAGRANCY OFFENCES.
15. Short sentences to be discouraged. Where the sentence is for less
than fourteen days, it should be limited to one day, and the conviction
recorded (196, 224). Appendix V.
16. Habitual vagrants to be sent to certified labour colonies for
detention for not less than six months or more than three years (221-3,
286). P. 72.
LABOUR COLONIES FOR HABITUAL VAGRANTS.
17. Labour colonies for habitual vagrants to be certified by Secretary
of State and generally to be subject to regulations made by him (284-5,
304). P. 81.
18. Councils of counties and county boroughs to have power to establish
labour colonies, or to contribute to certified colonies established by
other councils or by philanthropic agencies (284-5, 287-8). P. 82.
19. Exchequer contribution to be made towards cost of maintenance of
persons sent to labour colonies (287-8). P. 75.
20. Subsistence dietary to be prescribed. Inmates to have power to earn
small sums of money by their work, and, by means of canteen, to
supplement their food allowance (290, 312-5). Pp. 59, 79.
21. Discharge before the conclusion of sentence to be allowed on certain
conditions (286). P. 59.
22. Industrial as well as agricultural work to be carried on (299-302).
See Appendix III.
ECONOMY IN BUILDINGS.
23. Buildings for casual wards and in connection with labour colonies to
be erected cheaply (291-2, 317-23).
COMMON LODGING-HOUSES (OUTSIDE LONDON).
24. Common lodging-houses to be licensed annually by local authority
(326-7). Pp. 46-51.
25. Stricter supervision and control to be exercised by local authority
(326-7). P. 61.
26. Police to have right of entry (327). P. 61.
REGULATION OF SHELTERS AND FREE FOOD DISTRIBUTIONS.
27. Shelters to be licensed and regulated by local authority (366-7). P.
76.
28. Free food distribution to be subject to veto of local authority
(360). P. 76.
SPREAD OF DISEASE BY VAGRANTS.
29. Necessity of stricter enforcement of existing law (375, 377). Pp.
37, 42, 49.
30. Notice to be given to neighbouring districts of small-pox occurring
in common lodging-houses or casual wards (377).
SLEEPING OUT.
31. Sleeping out to be an offence whenever it takes place in buildings
or on enclosed premises, or is a danger or nuisance to the public (384).
P. 30.
PEDLARS.
32. Practice as to issue, renewal and endorsement of certificate to be
uniform (400).
WOMEN.
33. Female vagrants to be received into the workhouse instead of the
casual wards (405-8). Appendix IV.
CHILDREN.
34. Children of persons dealt with as habitual vagrants to be sent to
industrial schools or other place of safety (428). P. 84.
35. Child vagrants to be received into the workhouse instead of the
casual wards (406, 428). Appendix IV.
36. Section 14 of the Industrial Schools Act, 1866, to apply to vagrant
children (418).
FOOTNOTES:
[158] References in parentheses are to sections in the Vagrancy Report.
[159] I do not agree as to time task. See p. 45. See pp. 181-184, "How
to Deal with the Unemployed."
APPENDIX III.
LABOUR COLONIES.[160]
The Report as to Labour Colonies may be summarised as follows:--
HOLLAND. BELGIUM.
1818. Société de Benéficence established _Free Colonies_ (_i.e._,
_Fredericksoord_, _Willemsoord_, and _Willewminsoord_). Population
decreasing (1902, 1,460). Also _Beggar Colonies_, _Wortel_ and
_Merxplas_, handed over to Government in 1859.
In 1831 Holland and Belgium separated.
HOLLAND now possesses: BELGIUM now possesses:
_Veenhuizen_ for men: 3,000 _Hoogstraeten_, _Wortel_,
to 4,000 inmates. Committed _"Maisons de Refuge,"_
by magistrates, six months voluntary colonies.
to three years.
_Hoorn_ for women: Vagrant _Merxplas "Depôt de Mendicité":_
class. 5,110 inmates, 1905.
Agricultural and industrial.
Net annual cost per head, £9.
Average detention, 16 months.
Earnings per day, 1_d_. to 3_d_.
Vagrant class.
GERMANY. SWITZERLAND.
_Labour Colonies_, 34: _Labour Institutions_ in nearly
every canton.
About 4,000 inmates. Vagrants committed for two to
six months.
Admission voluntary. Examples:
Example: _Wilhelmsdorf_, _Witzwyl:_ About 200 inmates.
founded 1882. Agricultural. Agricultural and industrial.
Small wage allowed. _Appenzell:_ Pays its way.
Also _Workhouses_ (arbeits _St. Johannsen:_ £6 per head.
hauser), 24:
Forced labour. Detention, _Lucerne:_ £14 per head.
one year. Accommodate
14,836. Cost small, e.g.,
_Westphalia_, cost £17 8_s_.,
earnings £8 14_s_.; _Moritzburg_,
cost £14 9_s_. 2_d_., earnings
£11 10_s_. 8_d_.
Mainly handicrafts. _Voluntary Colonies:_
Example: _Herdern_, more
expensive, £50 per
head.
HADLEIGH. LINGFIELD.
_Salvation Army._ _Christian Social Brotherhood._
_Inmates:_ Paupers, men _Inmates:_ Workhouse cases and
from "Elevators," inebriates; private cases.
private cases.
_Capital cost_, about £300 per _Capital cost_, about £160 per
head. head.
_Average annual cost_, nearly _Average annual cost_, £33 per
£34 per head. head.
Agriculture and brick-making. Training in farm and dairy work.
Forty per cent. emigrate to
Canada.
HOLLESLEY BAY. LAINDON.
_London County Council._ _Poplar Guardians._
Established 1904-5. Established 1904.
Principally "unemployed." Able-bodied paupers.
Cost of food per week, Cost of food per week, 5_s_.
6_s_. 3_d_. to 7_s_. 1_d_. per 8_d_. per head.
head.
Agriculture. Spade labour.
Accommodates 150 inmates.
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE VAGRANCY COMMITTEE.
_Labour colonies_ on the lines of inebriate reformatories.
Compulsory detention for from six months to three years.
Also _State colony_.
Equal contributions from the State and local authority.
Small wage as incentive to work.
Simple subsistence diet, supplemented by canteen.
_Estimated cost, 1s. 6d. per week per head_ (section 315).
Industrial and agricultural.
FOOTNOTES:
[160] Chapter VII., Vagrancy Report.
APPENDIX IV.
WOMEN.
_Extract from Report of Vagrancy Committee, pp. 111-112._
403. At present separate accommodation, under the charge of female
officers, is provided for women in the casual wards. The rules as to
their detention are the same as in the case of men, and their diet is
also the same, though less in quantity. The task of work which is
prescribed for them by the regulations is picking oakum (half the
quantity given to the men) or domestic work, such as washing, scrubbing,
cleaning, or needlework. Oakum picking as a task of work for females,
however, has been discouraged for some time by the Local Government
Board, but it is still in force in many unions.
The number of female vagrants is comparatively small. Out of 9,768
vagrants relieved in casual wards in England and Wales on the night of
1st January, 1905, only 887, or 9 per cent., were women. On the 1st
July, 1905, there were 813 female casual paupers out of a total of
8,556.
404. We have proposed that casual wards should be continued for the
reception of male wayfarers, but we are strongly of opinion that women
should be provided for elsewhere. Mrs. Higgs said:--
"I should propose that single women should be received into the
workhouse proper. I would do away with the casual ward for women. The
reason of that would be three-fold. First of all, the woman, if she
were admitted into the workhouse proper, would receive the workhouse
clothes; therefore, she would not work in her own, and her own would not
be destroyed. She would go out in as good a state of cleanliness as
before. Besides that, I think it is altogether wrong to recognise a
class of vagrant women at all. I think it is a great evil to recognise
that a woman has the right to go about from place to place in that
unattached kind of way. I think she should be received at the workhouse
proper.... I think it is a great mistake for our country to educate any
women into vagrancy." And as regards women who are tramping with their
husbands, she said:--
"I think that women ought not to be allowed to travel about like that. I
think it would be better if they were taken into the workhouse, and the
husbands were made to pay for them. I think they could go out with their
husbands, if there was a reasonable presumption that the husband was a
working man travelling about for work, after the ordinary detention."
405. We entirely approve of this suggestion. At present the treatment
that female casuals receive is often unsatisfactory, and the complaints
that Mrs. Higgs made of her experience in certain wards cannot be
disregarded. But apart from this, we think it undesirable to encourage
the female tramp. No similar provision is made for this class in other
countries; and we feel that great advantage would ensue from the closing
of the casual wards to women in this country. We gather from experienced
officers that only a small percentage of the female tramps are with
their husbands; temporary alliances seem rather to be the rule of the
road. No doubt there may be exceptional cases, where a woman may have
satisfactory reasons for tramping, but in any such case, if she is a
decent person, she could hardly fail to prefer the accommodation of the
workhouse to that of the casual ward. To a woman who is an habitual
vagrant the workhouse would probably be a deterrent.
406. In many workhouses there are receiving wards where female vagrants
could well be lodged for a night or two; but in any case we do not think
that there need be any insuperable difficulty in arranging for their
reception. If they are able-bodied, their services will be useful in
many workhouses for domestic work, as there is often a difficulty in
getting sufficient help from the ordinary inmates. From the point of
view of the woman the change from the casual wards to the workhouse will
be of considerable benefit. In the workhouse she will be given other
clothes to work in, and will thus avoid the hardship of which Mrs. Higgs
complains. Moreover, she will receive better treatment generally, and,
in many cases, may be brought under reformatory influences which in the
casual wards she would escape. In the case of children, also, the
workhouse is obviously a more suitable place than the casual ward.
407. We suggest that admission should be on an order from a relieving
officer or assistant relieving officer,[161] or, in sudden or urgent
cases, on the authority of the master of the workhouse, and that
discharge should be subject to the notice which is now required in the
case of ordinary inmates of the workhouse. The possession of a way
ticket would entitle a woman to admission to the workhouses on her
route, and if she was tramping with her husband she should be allowed to
discharge herself on the morning after admission so as to join her
husband. It is not likely that such cases would be numerous.
408. The removal of women from the casual wards will be of material
assistance in connection with our proposal for placing the control of
the wards in the hands of the police. It will greatly simplify the
provision of the necessary casual wards, and there will be no need, as
now, for a female staff. We think, however, that in the case of some of
the larger casual wards now existing, where ample provision both in
accommodation and staff has been made for the reception of female
vagrants, it may be desirable, for some time after the transfer of the
wards to the police authority, to continue to receive females in them.
We do not contemplate that any such arrangement as this should be other
than temporary, and we trust that it will be found practicable
eventually to establish a uniform system throughout the country.
409. Apart from the reception of women into the workhouse, we do not
propose that their treatment should differ materially from that proposed
for men. The female habitual vagrant should, we think, be liable to be
sent to a labour colony, which, of course, should be one appropriated to
women only. We do not anticipate that there will be many cases which
will need to be sent to a labour colony, and probably one or two
institutions for the whole country would be sufficient. It seems to us
that there would be special advantage in these being provided--at any
rate, in the first instance--by private enterprise, and it is possible
that there are institutions at present in existence which might properly
be certified for this purpose. They should be subject, in so far as they
are used for the compulsory detention of vagrant women, to the
inspection and control of the Home Office.
410. We are inclined to accept the view that the question of female
vagrants is comparatively unimportant,[162] and that if the men are
removed, the women and children will soon disappear from the roads.
Without the men, the women will find it easy to maintain themselves, and
their case will present little difficulty.
FOOTNOTES:
[161] See Appendix I. Great care will be necessary to ensure admission
to _all really destitute_.
[162] See Appendix VII.
APPENDIX V.
EVILS OF SHORT SENTENCES.
These evils may be summarised as follows:--
(1) Uneven administration of justice, as sentences frequently vary from
three to twenty-eight days for the same offences, _i.e._, refusing to
perform workhouse task or destroying clothing. The sentence of a
stipendiary often differs from that of a local magistrate in the same
town.
The great majority of sentences (13,831 out of 16,626 for begging, and
5,198 out of 6,219 for sleeping out) are for less than fourteen and
probably for only seven days.
(2) Such short sentences are not deterrent, and are very costly. Two
vagrants cost in travelling expenses alone £12 and £16 10_s_. Hardly any
work can be exacted during a short sentence.
The committee recommend that a minimum sentence of one day should be
_recorded as a conviction_ for vagrancy. If again convicted the prisoner
could be then committed to a labour colony.
APPENDIX VI.
PREFACE, BY CANON HICKS, OF SALFORD, TO "FIVE DAYS AND NIGHTS IN A TRAMP
WARD."
The narrative may be relied upon as true in every detail. The facts were
burned in upon the minds of the two pilgrims, and were put on paper at
once.
Certain names are omitted for obvious reasons; they are known and can be
verified.
The lady whose courage and devotion first suggested this descent into
the Inferno, who took the lead in it and then recorded its results, was
inclined, when it came to printing them, to suppress certain revolting
particulars. At my express desire they were retained. They are essential
to her case. For, of course, the facts here revealed are a terrible
indictment of our present arrangements, and cry aloud for reform. In the
interests of morality alone, our Workhouse Tramp-wards and Municipal
Lodging-houses need far more careful supervision. It will be found also
that efficiency, common-sense, and kindliness would tend to economy and
prevent waste. As to the Common Lodging-house, it is a focus of moral
and physical mischief.
It is hoped that this pamphlet will stimulate local authorities; will
awaken the ratepayers to a livelier interest in the appointment of Poor
Law Guardians, and will quicken the conscience of many more women to
offer themselves for election.
EDWARD LEE HICKS.
_Manchester, January, 1904._
_N.B.--This Pamphlet was published by the Women Guardians and
Local Government Association, 66, Barton Arcade, Manchester, and
may still be had from them, price 1d._
_Chapter III., "The Tramp Ward" price 2d., Chapter IV., "A Night
in a Salvation Army Shelter," price 1d., Chapter V., "Three Nights
in Women's Lodging-houses," price 1d., may be obtained in pamphlet
form from the Author, post free._
APPENDIX VII.
IMMORALITY AS CAUSED BY DESTITUTION AMONG WOMEN.
The causes of immorality among women are deep-seated in modern life.
They are due to--(1) widespread changes in sex relationship, combined
with (2) changes in modes of life due to the industrial revolution, and
complicated by (3) psychic developments in humanity itself.
(1) Suppose we take the largest and most universal change first. In
modern civilisation the psychic relationships of man and woman are
changing. Intensity has come into sex relationships. It is reckoned
right, or at least pardonable, for men and women to do "for love" what
may be against the dictates of common sense. To a large extent this is
ephemeral, and belongs to the erotic age alone. But necessarily the
effect on the young of both sexes of the "novel" with its coloured
picture of life, must be great, and greatest on the most emotional sex.
Fictitious views of life influence minds just endeavouring to grasp life
as a whole. A woman may be placed in circumstances of destitution in
pursuit of the _ideal_ life. It matters little to evolution that
thousands of lives perish. The evolution of woman involves, like all
other evolutions, _sacrifice_.
(2) Let us now look at the second large factor--what is called the
Industrial Revolution. It has been pointed out by Mrs. Stetson, that
hitherto man has been the economic environment of woman. We are still
in a transition period, but largely in the middle and working classes,
women before marriage, and even after, are escaping to economic
independence. This change is so vast and far-reaching (involving an
adjustment of all our social institutions) that we can hardly yet
appreciate it. Once begun, it must go forward. But at present, as half
begun, it means in all directions the danger and sacrifice of individual
lives. Over against the problem of unemployed men, we now have
unemployed women also--women not dependent, but on their own economic
footing.
(3) Changes in sex relationship rapidly follow on changes in economic
status. The attainment of economic status as distinct from economic
value is imperceptibly modifying marriage and the family. Woman and man
are partners. While the child becomes more and more the centre on which
public interest focusses, at the same time the ties both of wifehood and
of parentage and of brotherhood and sisterhood are relaxed. Community
interest and life replaces by degrees parental restraint and
responsibility. Freedom has its blessings and also its penalties.
Let us trace a woman through her normal life and see what dangers of
destitution beset her.
As at first born, the home is her support and natural habitat. But
economic independence being possible at an early age, parental restraint
is lighter. I have known cases of girls even of fourteen and sixteen
leaving home, and with a companion or two, clubbing together and setting
up house. They were then free to invite young men, with what
consequences may be imagined. A girl in "lodgings" or "with friends" may
easily become destitute through changes in employment.
In addition to these wandering children, parents often cast off girls on
very slight grounds. To turn a child into the street, if the girl is out
of work or supposed to be idle or disorderly, is by no means uncommon.
It is so common that some provision for it should be made in every town.
Short of actually leaving home, our girls are now exposed to the
temptations of the free life of the street, of largely unrestricted
intercourse, often under wrong conditions, with the other sex. This
intercourse, however, cannot under modern circumstances, be prevented
except by exceptional parents. It should be under healthy conditions and
wise control. But at present it is a large factor in destitution, for
the lad and lass spend their earnings largely on sex attraction and are
penniless in emergencies sure to occur. Hasty and ill-considered
marriage may follow. A national education for motherhood is much to be
desired; it is perilous and unwise to keep up the old conventional ideas
as to "innocence" and "purity" being fostered by ignorance. Let us face
the question boldly, and encourage the teaching of right and pure and
true views of marriage. Forewarned is often forearmed. At any rate, at
this period in life, orphanhood, or some change in family relations,
stepfatherhood or motherhood being frequent, may throw the girl much on
her lover. There is no reserve of maidenly provision as in many
countries. The legislation of betrothal might even be a good thing, and
the State might require at least a little forethought. More and more the
State becomes the universal child-parent. It is time it studied its
responsibilities.
Before our typical woman lie two paths. Into the usual one of marriage
the vast majority of industrial women are carried. The marriage state
still involves support, but also involves a change in economic
relationship which more and more galls. Curious partnerships result
where both are self-supporting, one or the other being predominant
partner. In middle-class life still, conventions largely rule; but in
industrial centres the marriage bond itself is much less binding than of
old. Separations become more and more common. The amount of support that
can be claimed by a wife is so insufficient that often they come
together again perhaps only to part. Both are often young. Before the
man lies a long celibate life, he is under no vow--self-restraint is
normally not attained. The large numbers of imperfectly-mated men
leading a life divorced from home ties constitute a grave social peril.
In every town a great number of middle-class and many working men live
free from social responsibility to support women, yet do partially
support some at any rate, either as lovers, as betrothed sweethearts, or
in less sacred relationships. Destitute and deserted wives are common,
cast-off sweethearts not a few; women derelicts abound; they are the
"unemployed," alas not unemployed in sin, but a source of moral
contagion in their easy life.
For the other career of womanhood is hard, and as yet a path not for the
many, and therefore all the harder. A woman may attain economic
independence; but she is sadly handicapped. Her wage is low, often
lowered by dress expense; and her woman nature, especially under modern
pressure of sentimental literature, demands satisfaction in husband and
child. What wonder if she gives up the hard struggle and strays from
this path. Society owes much to the women who toil on, cutting by
degrees the stairs of progress. If they succeed in self-support, how
often age overtakes them as toilers; women's physical disabilities
(created or complicated by a false civilisation) leave them stranded.
The middle-aged unemployed female is a most serious national problem at
present. It calls loudly for universal sisterhood. Drink too often
claims the unloved and unlovable spinster. She can no longer spin; she
must work under conditions in which she ages fast. Independence is
hardly to be won. Our workhouses are full of derelict womanhood. Nor is
the married woman always more fortunate. Industries often kill husbands
when still young. Widows abound. It is extremely difficult to make a
woman self-supporting with more than one, or at most with two children,
in such a way as to secure sufficient food and clothes for these
children. Into married destitution, if the husband lives, I need not
enter; it is part of the unemployed problem, and a serious one.
How can we face these problems? They are on every hand. We have no
effective State provision. The Tramp Ward is a mockery, a robbery and
insult to womanhood. The common lodging-house is a snare and a trap.
Surely _it belongs to womanhood to befriend womanhood_. It is little use
to multiply Rescue Homes while we leave untouched the causes that are
stranding more and more of our sisters.
What is needed is--in every town an industry for destitute women; in
every town a Shelter to pick up strays and guide them to self-support;
in every town Women's Hostels under kind, wise, but not restrictive
supervision; in every town provision for glad, free girl life, and
joined to this distinct, clear, national purity teaching. What is needed
is a pure, free, enlightened womanhood, ready to stand side by side with
man to mother the world.
MARY HIGGS.
[_Read at Conference of Reformatory and Refuge Union and National
Association of Certified Reformatory and Industrial Schools,
Birmingham, June 21st, 1905._]
APPENDIX VIII.
COMMON LODGING-HOUSES VERSUS SHELTERS.
The laws of evolution apply to social phenomena. Tested by these we see
that _the Shelter_, the _Municipal Lodging-house_, and the _Rowton
House_ are replacing the _common lodging-house_. Is there any reason why
they should not, when for the rich the hotel has replaced the inn? It is
a question of national moment what provision should be made for the
floating population of men and _women_.
In smaller towns the common lodging-house is _disappearing_ (see Minutes
of Evidence before Vagrancy Committee, section 1752). In London the
accommodation is _decreasing_ (see _ibid._, section 5784). Is this to be
deplored or hastened? The poor must sleep _somewhere_. Let us first of
all distinguish between the _Free_ Charitable Shelter and _Free_ Meals,
and the question of provision of adequate housing accommodation for our
floating population.
The provision for _absolute destitution_ belongs to the _State_. Only
the State, or the State through the Municipality, can exercise
sufficient authority to sift the incapable and "won't-works" from the
simply "unemployed." The former should be in some State or
State-subsidised institution, unless supported by relatives. The
"won't-works" require coercion. Any form of charity that impedes right
State action is harmful. It has arisen because the State has shirked its
duty. The public should be satisfied that every _destitute_ man and
woman gets bed and board, with even-handed justice, in return for a
task, if capable, or with proper care if incapable. Then Free Shelters
and Free Meals would disappear.
But _provision_ of proper accommodation for those who are struggling to
earn their living is another matter. Hitherto it has grown up haphazard,
sanitary regulations have slowly been made, still more slowly enforced,
and are often a dead letter.
If the question of the common lodging-house were simply that of
enforcing on the proprietor of a certain house, by means of adequate
inspection, a certain standard of cleanliness and decency, there would
still be reasons why a Municipal lodging-house or charitable Shelter
would, if under strict supervision, be a better provision for the poor.
I will tabulate these.
COMMON LODGING-HOUSE. MUNICIPAL LODGING-HOUSE
OR SHELTER.
_Interested Management._ _Disinterested Management._
Not to proprietary _interest_ to Against interest to have
put down vice and drunkenness, disturbances, and therefore
and to call in police. desirable to prevent vice
Interest to secure greatest and drunkenness from
number of lodgers. commencement.
Interest to provide _minimum_ Interest to provide
that will pass muster, _e.g._, _maximum_ consistent with
usually no stoving apparatus cleanliness. Usually apparatus
to prevent vermin, for stoving, and
and no lockers to prevent lockers for private property.
theft.
Imperfect sanitary arrangements, Sanitary arrangements considered
deficient arrangements in building.
for cooking and Proper arrangements for
washing. cooking and washing.
Deputy (usually chosen from Management removes at
inmates) exercises little once any warden suspected
control. of ill conduct.
Regulations if made, hard Regulations being made by
to enforce, as _interest_ is management can be more
retention of lodgers. easily enforced.
Small number makes better Larger number allows of
provision not profitable. better provision.
But it is not a question _merely_ of the state of the common
lodging-house. Bound up with this is the fact that around the common
lodging-houses in each large town is growing up silently a great evil, a
network of single "furnished rooms," which are the last refuge of
evicted householders, but also the home of immorality. The insufficient
provision of the common lodging-house is being silently largely
supplemented by these. These evils are flagrant. Yet they cannot be
_suppressed_. The homeless must have somewhere to go. The crowding of
slum areas by "lodgers" is as grave an evil.
The "way out" is to _provide_ in every town, under charge of the
Municipality, _well-regulated sanitary_ and _sufficient_ accommodation.
As a _national_ provision is required, Municipalities of smaller towns
might be encouraged by loans for building purposes on national credit,
Government in return exercising care as to expense. Glasgow has shown
that such enterprises
(1) Suppress the poor insufficient houses,
(2) Provide adequate return on capital,
(3) Lead to the rise of still better accommodation for working men.
A Municipal lodging-house should be linked to remedial agencies, and a
chain should exist on routes of travel.
Especially for _women_, municipal lodging-houses are a _necessity_. With
regard to the question of "bunks" _versus_ "beds," it is strange that
while on the one hand for sanitary reasons the Government allows plank
beds and wire mattresses, it is about to enforce _for a class
confessedly dirtier_ (see Vagrancy Report, 335) a universal bed. The
idea that "inspection" can keep beds clean without stoving is futile.
Some of the vermin most troublesome to get rid of are microscopic. Also
the idea that people undress to go to bed, and do not undress in a bunk,
is not correct. The class that possess only "what they stand up in"
possess no night garments. Women keep some of their garments on. Men may
undress (for _protection_ from vermin). All the garments not worn all
night are usually tucked into the bed for fear of thefts. I have seen
women undressing similarly in a bunk. The Salvation Army keeps its
shelters spotlessly clean and free from vermin. Unless cleansing of the
person is compelled by law, all that can be done for the lowest class of
all is to provide some easily cleansed resting-place (see p. 30).
Something must be done to prevent the scandal of "sleeping out" in our
wealthy cities.
The popularity of the Shelter shows it meets a social need. Also in
connection with public institutions, remedial action and sorting into
classes is possible, which is impossible in places provided for private
profit. We should aim at getting every individual into a safe and
sanitary shelter at night. How can a _destitute_ woman find 3_s_. 6_d_.
per week for bare shelter? If she pays this should not it entitle her to
a place which is clean, where she can keep herself clean, and can _keep
her self-respect_?
INDEX.
Aboriginal Vagrant, 2
Admission, Refusal of, 29
Afforestation, 77
Agricultural Vagrancy, 5, 83
Appenzell, 310
Beggars, 11, 19, 97-100
Casual Ward, Admission to, 109, 120, 139-142, 295, 304, 312-315;
Bath, 37, 39, 40, 80, 111, 121, 144, 260; Bed, 114, 122, 146, 167,
279; Cleanliness, 34, 37, 39, 80, 111, 114, 144, 145; Cost of, 79;
Defects of, 53, 54, 111, 113, 124, 125, 147-149, 168, 172, 274,
294; Detention, 29, 81, 273; Drink, 113, 124, 129, 164, 260; Food,
26, 27, 33, 40, 44, 75, 112, 115, 123, 125, 129, 143, 168, 260,
305; Institution of, 14; Investigation of, 33; Overcrowding, 37,
39, 41, 42, 44, 80; Task, 22, 28, 33, 34, 40, 45, 96, 117, 126-128,
154, 162-165, 261, 264, 273
Casuals, Statistics of, 17, 18, 19, 20, 65, 67, 68, 294
Central Hall, Manchester, 71, 85, 280
Charity, 58, 76
Common Lodging-House, 35, 36, 47, 94-106, 175-177, 232-254,
269-271, 307; Beds in, 48, 49, 101, 102; Cost in, 48; Cleanliness
of, 47-49, 103-105, 237, 241, 242, 245, 246, 252, 270; Overcrowding
in, 47, 104, 252, 254, 271, 298; _versus_ Shelter, 324-327
Danish Poor Law, 58
Department of Labour, 74
Dietary, Tramp Ward, 26
Doctor refused, 37, 43, 157
Drink, 20, 139, 161, 186, 189
Ensor, Research by, 25
Forced Labour, 59, 61, 63
Fuller on Vagrancy, 3
Furnished Rooms, 176, 247
German Relief Station, 14
German Colonies, 62, 310
Glasgow Municipal Lodging-Houses, 299-300
Herdern, 310
Hibbert, Sir John, 44
Home, Disintegration of the, 12, 288-297, 321, 322
Identification, 81
Impotent, 6, 32, 36, 42
Incapable, 5, 7, 32, 42, 150, 151, 156, 157, 298
_Independent Review_, 25
Inefficient, 8, 10, 20, 26, 53, 290
Inspection, 48, 258
Investigation, Value of, 23
Investigation into Belgian Labour Colonies, 54
Investigation into Manchester poverty, 12
Labour Bureaux, 62, 75
Labour Colonies, 82, 173, 271, 281, 301, 306-311; Cost in, 58, 62,
76, 173, 309-310, 311; _English:_ Hadleigh, 310; Hollesley Bay, 71,
311; Laindon, 71, 311; Lingfield, 71, 310; _Foreign:_ Belgian, 56,
57, 309; Dutch, 62, 309; German, 62, 310; Swiss, 63, 310; Visit to,
34; Wage in, 79
Legislation against Vagrancy, 3, 4, 11-15, 53, 64, 81
Legislation, Faults of, 15, 16
Lodging-houses, 35, 36, 47-49, 76, 94-106, 173, 191, 197-231, 233,
293, 299 (_see_ Shelters); German, 60; Municipal, 49, 74, 89-93,
178, 299, 324-326; (Glasgow), 299; Rowton Houses, 50, 324; Women's,
197-231. 255-259, 280
London Lodging-houses, 48, 254-259, 298, 300; Tramp Ward, 259-268
Low-skilled Labour, 8
Lucerne, 310
Luhterheim, 62
Magistrates, 11, 69, 306, 316
Merxplas, 56, 57, 309
Migration, 9, 19, 29, 35, 38, 51, 66, 72, 287-290, 297
Moritzburg, 310
Municipality, 73, 301
Nomad, 1
Pastoral Vagrancy, 2
Personality, Theory of, xxi.
Police, 303-305
Prison, 25, 28, 29, 31, 38, 55, 56, 172, 214, 276-279, 299; Cost,
58; Food, 27, 276
Prostitution, 200-203, 206-208, 212-216, 220, 222, 226, 231, 292,
294, 296, 319-327
Relief Station, 14, 60, 61, 63, 65, 173, 275, 279, 306
Rose, "Rise of Democracy", 12
Rosebery, Lord, 12
Rowton Houses, 50
Settlement, Law of, 4, 303
Shelters, 29, 30, 48, 130-135, 173, 190, 195-196, 295, 299, 307,
324-327; Beds in, 133; German, 61; Salvation Army, 175-196, 233;
Beds in, 180, 183; Food in, 184, 192
Sleeping Out, 13, 18, 30, 31, 38, 51, 65, 137, 166, 171, 275, 308
Small-pox, 37, 42, 105, 245, 307
Soldiers discharged, 21
St. Johannsen, 63, 310
Task of Work, 15, 33, 34
Theory of Personality, xxi.
Tramp Ward defects, 53, 54 _See_ Casual Ward.
Unemployed, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29-32, 35, 36, 50, 51, 56, 69, 72, 84,
137, 150, 162, 167, 188, 189, 215, 220
Unemployment in England, 73, 76, 77, 301; in Denmark, 59; in
Germany, 60-62
Unions, Combination of, 81
Unskilled Labour, 5, 9, 18, 20, 70
Vagrancy Definition of, 1; in early England, 3, 284-285;
Agricultural, 5, 11, 83, 85, 285; Industrial, 6, 83, 85, 286;
Modern, 7, 16-23; in other countries, 54-64
Vagrancy Committee, Recommendations of, 305-308
Vagrancy Reform, 71-82
Vagrants, Number of, 4, 5, 10, 17, 20, 21-23, 25, 43, 67, 261
Veenhuizen, 209
Way Tickets, 60, 63, 65-69, 80, 81, 306
Westphalia, 310
Wilhelmsdorf, 310
Witzwyl, 63, 310
Women, 312-315, 319-327; Dirty Clothing of, 129, 191, 244, 250;
Lodging-Houses for, 93, 95, 176, 190, 191, 195, 196-231, 233, 247,
248, 252-259, 280, 300; Sanitation for, 92, 93, 104-105, 235, 242,
243, 257; Vagrants, 80, 114, 116, 135, 160-161, 188, 193, 211, 225,
228, 237, 249, 267, 304, 308, 312-315
Workhouse, Cost in, 58; Austrian, 64; Danish, 58, 59; German, 61
How to deal
with the
Unemployed.
_By_ MARY HIGGS,
_Author of "Five Days and Five Nights as a Tramp among Tramps."_
A Contribution of Value towards
the Solution of Social Problems.
* * * * *
_Crown 8vo, Paper, 6d. net._
* * * * *
"The book is a genuine effort to solve the great problem of the
unemployed by scientific methods."--_To-day._
"The book is an attempt to analyse the whole of the unemployed
problem."--_Review of Reviews._