up. Nor is the casual ward a soft snap. To pick
four pounds of oakum, break twelve hundredweight
of stones, or perform the most revolting tasks, in
return for the miserable food and shelter they re
ceive, is an unqualified extravagance on the part
of the men who are guilty of it. On the part of
the authorities, it is sheer robbery. They give the
men far less for their labor than do the capitalistic
employers. The wage for the same amount of
labor, performed for a private employer, would buy
them better beds, better food, more good cheer, and,
above all, greater freedom.

As I say, it is an extravagance for a man to pat
ronize a casual ward. And that they know it them
selves is shown by the way these men shun it till
driven in by physical exhaustion. Then why do
they do it? Not because they are discouraged
workers. The very opposite is true; they are
discouraged vagabonds. In the United States the
tramp is almost invariably a discouraged worker.
He finds tramping a softer mode of life than work
ing. But this is not true in England. Here the
powers that be do their utmost to discourage the
tramp and vagabond, and he is, in all truth, a
mightily discouraged creature. He knows that two
shillings a day, which is only fifty cents, will buy
him three fair meals, a bed at night, and leave him
a couple of pennies for pocket money. He would

[[196]]

p195 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p196w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p197

v?