Crime -- Great Britain; Criminal anthropology; Punishment -- Great Britain
for more money would be of little use to him if he did not get time to
spend it. This is merely an observation, not a doctrine; but it is
difficult to see how employment is to be found for those who are willing
and able to work unless we cease to improve machinery and produce less
economically; or increase our production enormously; or divide the work
and the proceeds more evenly. In any case, and while that matter is being
settled, we might recognise the dilemma into which those are thrust who
cannot find work and are destitute.
They must beg or steal, and if they get into the way of doing either they
are liable to become less fitted and less inclined for other occupations.
X 15 was an artisan earning a fair wage and enjoying good health. He was
married to a woman who was a good housewife and manager. When he was about
thirty-eight he was thrown out of work by a strike in an allied trade. A
commercial crisis ensued and there was general distress. He managed for a
time to keep his head above water, but his resources gradually were eaten
away. His employers wound up their business, and when the local difficulty
had passed he found that he had to look out for another place. While idle
he had formed the acquaintance of others in like case. He had been a
steady, stay-at-home man, but in their company he took to amusements which
were harmless in themselves and new to him. He also imbibed a taste for
beer, but he did not get drunk. The company was not bad company, but it
was different from any he had been accustomed to, and it was not good for
him. For a time he looked for work, but he did not find it. Others got
settled, but the luck was against him, and he became discouraged and
despairing. By and by he looked about in a half-hearted way, and gave more
time to loafing than to seeking rebuffs. He was not destitute, as his
family was able to keep the wolf from the door. In two years he was only
interested in getting drink from anybody who would treat him, and in
discussing public affairs with others who had fallen like himself. He had
given up the idea of work and had degenerated from a good citizen to a
loafer and, later, to a drunkard. He was never convicted, but he had to be
warned because of his conduct towards his wife; and he died as a result of
exposure when drunk--to the relief of his family, who were in danger of
being dragged into the mire by him. In this case his family saved him from
destitution, but the loss of his work drove him almost imperceptibly into
the ranks of the derelicts, in spite of the counter-influences of home. In
many cases there is no family to do what his did for him, and the process
is more certain and easy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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