The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless ManAnderson, Nels
General
The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man
Anderson, Nels
Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions; Tramps
_c_) Co-operation with such organization as the
Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, the special police
organizations of the railroads, the Lake Carriers
Association, and automobile clubs, in a program to
prevent boys wandering away from home. Pamphlets should
be prepared for distribution, asking for co-operation
and enforcement of working certificate regulations in
this and other states, child labor laws, juvenile court
laws, etc.
_d_) The enlistment officers of the army, navy, and
marine should demand the presentation of a birth
certificate in all cases in which they doubt the age of
the applicant.
_e_) The co-operation of the managers of the hotels
and lodging-houses in an effort to keep boys under
seventeen out of the hotels in the Hobohemian areas, or
at least to use their influence in preventing boys and
men from rooming together.
_f_) Because most of the contacts the boy has with
tramps are unwholesome, the police should not permit
boys to loiter or play in the areas most frequented
by the tramp population; namely, West Madison Street,
South State Street, North Clark Street, and adjacent
territory. Parents ought to be made aware of the nature
of the contacts the boy has with the tramp in these
areas and in the parks.
_g_) The assignment of special plain-clothes policemen
experienced in dealing with vagrants to the parks and
other places in which tramps congregate. They should be
instructed to pick up and hold in the Detention Home
any boy under seventeen years found in company with a
tramp.
_h_) More strenuous effort should be made to occupy
the leisure time of boys who frequent the districts in
which the tramps congregate. It is the boy with leisure
time who is the most susceptible to the unwholesome
contacts. Supervised recreation should be carried on to
an extent that boys who play in Hobohemian areas might
be attracted to other sections. When school is not in
session a more extensive program of summer camps might
help.
_i_) Since the Juvenile Court of Cook County is
equipped to investigate the cases of vagrant boys under
seventeen in Chicago, and return them to their homes,
all vagrant boys apprehended by anyone in the daytime
should be reported to the chief probation officer,
Juvenile Court. Vagrant boys over seventeen should be
directed to the Clearing House.
_j_) After five o’clock vagrant boys under seventeen
should be turned over to the police who will take them
to the Detention Home, from which home they will be
taken to the office of the chief probation officer the
first thing in the morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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