The Vagrancy Problem.: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour HousesDawson, William Harbutt
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The Vagrancy Problem.: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses
Dawson, William Harbutt
Poor laws; Poor laws -- Great Britain; Tramps; Unemployed
Something may, indeed, be said in favour of abolishing the casual wards
by degrees only, but the insuperable objection to their permanence is
that to retain the wards would mean the retention and toleration of the
tramp. It will be useless to wage war against vagrancy if we leave the
enemy in quiet possession of his cover. In any event it is clear that
until improved accommodation is provided for _bona fide_ work-seekers,
the casual wards will have to continue in some form. When such
accommodation exists, however, and the tramp is given the alternative
of work with freedom or work under restraint, the excuse for the casual
ward will disappear.
Meantime, the Vagrancy Committee wish to see genuine seekers of work
treated differently from the ordinary casuals, in having a merely
nominal task of work to perform, instead of one of nine hours, in
return for the relief given.
"Some means," they say, "should be adopted of discriminating between
the wayfarer who is genuinely in search of work and the idle vagrant.
Nearly all the witnesses we have examined have expressed themselves
in favour of some system of way-tickets as a means of helping the
_bona fide_ work-seeker on his way or of assisting to distinguish
such a case from the undeserving mendicant. The proposal is one which
has received general support. Although the _bona fide_ work-seeker
forms but a very small proportion of the total number of vagrants,
it is impossible to exclude this class from any consideration of
the vagrancy problem. The fact that under the present system the
working man on tramp who goes to a casual ward receives just the
same treatment there as the professional mendicant, is a direct
encouragement to indiscriminate almsgiving, as persons who give to
the beggar on the road have the excuse that he may be a _bona fide_
work-seeker who ought not to be treated like the ordinary vagrant.
We are strongly of opinion that some better provision should be made
to assist the man genuinely in search of work, not only because his
case merits different treatment, but because it is most important to
remove the excuse for casual almsgiving. It appears that in the case
of members of trades unions there is no need of any provision of this
sort....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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