A Plan For Relief From Tramps

City and country are ïntested with tramps, who beg and pilf'or their way from point to point, their asking tor ilms being usually more of a threat than anything else. Frequently they vary the moootony of . their inarch through the country by bcrglaries and other crimes of greater or lesa magnitude. The evil has becouie such a cryLng vice in many localities, as to cali for dec8ive measures. A reoent issue of the ücientific American discuases on e plan and its merits, as follows : Fix the penalty for begging- that is professional begging - at ten days' labor on the highways for each oö'ense ; there is no danger for a failing demand for that sort of labor for the next fifty years. Give to every citizen the power to make arrests in cases of vagrancy ; and for every ten days' labor for the party so arrested, credit the person making the arrest with five days toward the working out of his road tax. For nis labor, give the tramp decent board and lodgings, and from ten to fifty cents a day as wages, according to his efficiency, and in a little while we should have better roads and fewer tramps. The honest seekers for work would suffer less under sueh a system than they do now, when they are apt to be confounded with professional beggars, who are always in search of a job - somewhere else. If seriously in need of work and mouey, the temporary tramp would simply havo to apply to the road uiabter, who would uover be without einployment to givo, and iit'ty cents a da y to piiy for it. The work huntpr would not be long in acquiring enough to p;iy his way further or to support himsfit' until he fuund work in the ïuighborhood. Farmers and othors in ',iint of help would soon learn to resort to the road ganga to i:k their men, the roluntccrs boiig free to engage themsc-lves at auy time, those undc-r arrest when their ten days were up. The pro fessionais would moro or less quickly learn to prefpr free l.tbor at high rates to enforced work on the roads at low rates ; in tho meantime an enormous " waste product" would be utilized, and the highways improved at smail cost to the residents. It is safe to predict that any community adopüng such a plan would soou have better roads or fewer besr;:irs- possibly both. We h;ivü lonz held to the belief that tramps should bo made to work for the support they receive. We believe also that u community owes it to itself, and to its honest laborers, to give no man or woman support who is able to earn it. Wo should have less "temporary relief" to pay for if this rule was rigorously enforced. Vftgrants, and the other shiftless Classes who become public charge, ehould learn that to eat they must work. The rule should be adopted, and all made amenable to it. No sort of benefit is derived from the bestowal of public or private charity on this class, and indeed charity to them is often a curse rather than a blessing. in i i i ■■