THE VAGRANCY PROBLEM THE CASE FOR MEASURES OF RESTRAINT FOR TRAMPS, LOAFERS, AND UNEMPLOYABLES: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses. BY WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON Author of "The Evolution of Modern Germany," "German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle," "Prince Bismarck and State Socialism," "The German Workman," etc., etc. London: P. S. KING & SON, ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER. 1910 "In all ways it needs, especially in these times, to be proclaimed aloud that for the idle man there is no place in this England of ours. He that will not work, and save according to his means, let him go elsewhither; let him know that for _him_ the law has made no soft provision, but a hard and stern one; that by the law of nature, which the law of England would vainly contend against in the long run, _he_ is doomed either to quit these habits, or miserably be extruded from this earth, which is made on principles different from these. He that will not work according to his faculty, let him perish according to his necessity; there is no law juster than that.... "Let paralysis retire into secret places and dormitories proper for it; the public highways ought not to be occupied by people demonstrating that motion is impossible. Paralytic;--and also, thank Heaven, entirely false! Listen to a thinker of another sort: 'All evil, and this evil too, is a nightmare, the instant you begin to _stir_ under it, the _evil_ is, properly speaking, gone.'"--_Thomas Carlyle_, "Chartism." CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE PROBLEM STATED 1 II. THE URBAN LOAFER 47 III. DETENTION COLONIES AND LABOUR HOUSES 62 IV. THE BELGIAN BEGGARS' DEPOTS 104 V. THE GERMAN LABOUR HOUSES 133 VI. THE GERMAN TRAMP PRISONS 147 VII. THE BERLIN MUNICIPAL LABOUR HOUSE 166 VIII. TREATMENT OF VAGRANCY IN SWITZERLAND 179 IX. LABOUR HOUSES UNDER THE POOR LAW 193 X. LABOUR DEPOTS AND HOSTELS 212 XI. RECOMMENDATIONS OF RECENT COMMISSIONS 229 XII. APPENDIX I.--THE CHILDREN ACT, 1908, AND VAGRANTS 250 APPENDIX II.--SPECIMEN WAY TICKETS 253 APPENDIX III.--BELGIAN LAW OF NOVEMBER 27, 1891, FOR THE REPRESSION OF VAGRANCY AND BEGGARY 257 APPENDIX IV.--REGULATIONS OF THE BERLIN (RUMMELSBURG) LABOUR HOUSE 263 INTRODUCTION.