OCR Text |
Show PROFESSIONAL TRAMPS A MAJORITY IN BREADLINES New York. Feb: 8. Robert W. Heb-berd, Heb-berd, commissioner of charities of New York, takes the stand with Special Agent Powderly of the United States department of immigration, that a majority of the men in the breadlines of tho city arc professional tramps, undeserving un-deserving of aid. In an address to the members of tho Y. M. C. A. In Brooklyn, yesterday, he declared the tramp and vagrant are a menace to civilization and he urged stringent treatment to regulate them. He endorsed en-dorsed the movement for the establishment establish-ment of colonies by tho state where such men can be put to work, a bill for the creation of which is already before the legislature. "A conservative estimate of the number of unemployed in New York City today," he said, "is 100.000. Of these, perhaps 80,000 are trade union men temporarily out of work. These men do not come to the department of charities. They generally have money saved up to tide them over the hard times. For that reason, the men who frequent the breadline and the municipal lodging houses are not fair samples of the unemployed. Not one in twenty of the men who come to us is willing to work. We have many positions po-sitions open in our department, and yet they won't take and hold them. For the lower class of the unemployed unemploy-ed the vagrants and the breadllners we must adopt stringent methods. A farm colony has been tried in Germany Ger-many and Switzerland with great success suc-cess and I am confident it would work here. We should have the power to keep these men at work in the colony for two years if necessary." |