Glimpses into the Abyss Part 23

Also _Workhouses_ (arbeits _St. Johannsen:_ 6 per head.

hauser), 24:

Forced labour. Detention, _Lucerne:_ 14 per head.

one year. Accommodate 14,836. Cost small, e.g., _Westphalia_, cost 17 8_s_., earnings 8 14_s_.; _Moritzburg_, cost 14 9_s_. 2_d_., earnings 11 10_s_. 8_d_.

Mainly handicrafts. _Voluntary Colonies:_

Example: _Herdern_, more expensive, 50 per head.

HADLEIGH. LINGFIELD.

_Salvation Army._ _Christian Social Brotherhood._

_Inmates:_ Paupers, men _Inmates:_ Workhouse cases and from "Elevators," inebriates; private cases.

private cases.

_Capital cost_, about 300 per _Capital cost_, about 160 per head. head.

_Average annual cost_, nearly _Average annual cost_, 33 per 34 per head. head.

Agriculture and brick-making. Training in farm and dairy work.

Forty per cent. emigrate to Canada.

HOLLESLEY BAY. LAINDON.

_London County Council._ _Poplar Guardians._

Established 1904-5. Established 1904.

Princ.i.p.ally "unemployed." Able-bodied paupers.

Cost of food per week, Cost of food per week, 5_s_.

6_s_. 3_d_. to 7_s_. 1_d_. per 8_d_. per head.

head.

Agriculture. Spade labour.

Accommodates 150 inmates.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE VAGRANCY COMMITTEE.

_Labour colonies_ on the lines of inebriate reformatories.

Compulsory detention for from six months to three years.

Also _State colony_.

Equal contributions from the State and local authority.

Small wage as incentive to work.

Simple subsistence diet, supplemented by canteen.

_Estimated cost, 1s. 6d. per week per head_ (section 315).

Industrial and agricultural.

FOOTNOTES:

[160] Chapter VII., Vagrancy Report.

APPENDIX IV.

WOMEN.

_Extract from Report of Vagrancy Committee, pp. 111-112._

403. At present separate accommodation, under the charge of female officers, is provided for women in the casual wards. The rules as to their detention are the same as in the case of men, and their diet is also the same, though less in quant.i.ty. The task of work which is prescribed for them by the regulations is picking oak.u.m (half the quant.i.ty given to the men) or domestic work, such as was.h.i.+ng, scrubbing, cleaning, or needlework. Oak.u.m picking as a task of work for females, however, has been discouraged for some time by the Local Government Board, but it is still in force in many unions.

The number of female vagrants is comparatively small. Out of 9,768 vagrants relieved in casual wards in England and Wales on the night of 1st January, 1905, only 887, or 9 per cent., were women. On the 1st July, 1905, there were 813 female casual paupers out of a total of 8,556.

404. We have proposed that casual wards should be continued for the reception of male wayfarers, but we are strongly of opinion that women should be provided for elsewhere. Mrs. Higgs said:--

"I should propose that single women should be received into the workhouse proper. I would do away with the casual ward for women. The reason of that would be three-fold. First of all, the woman, if she were admitted into the workhouse proper, would receive the workhouse clothes; therefore, she would not work in her own, and her own would not be destroyed. She would go out in as good a state of cleanliness as before. Besides that, I think it is altogether wrong to recognise a cla.s.s of vagrant women at all. I think it is a great evil to recognise that a woman has the right to go about from place to place in that unattached kind of way. I think she should be received at the workhouse proper.... I think it is a great mistake for our country to educate any women into vagrancy." And as regards women who are tramping with their husbands, she said:--

"I think that women ought not to be allowed to travel about like that. I think it would be better if they were taken into the workhouse, and the husbands were made to pay for them. I think they could go out with their husbands, if there was a reasonable presumption that the husband was a working man travelling about for work, after the ordinary detention."

405. We entirely approve of this suggestion. At present the treatment that female casuals receive is often unsatisfactory, and the complaints that Mrs. Higgs made of her experience in certain wards cannot be disregarded. But apart from this, we think it undesirable to encourage the female tramp. No similar provision is made for this cla.s.s in other countries; and we feel that great advantage would ensue from the closing of the casual wards to women in this country. We gather from experienced officers that only a small percentage of the female tramps are with their husbands; temporary alliances seem rather to be the rule of the road. No doubt there may be exceptional cases, where a woman may have satisfactory reasons for tramping, but in any such case, if she is a decent person, she could hardly fail to prefer the accommodation of the workhouse to that of the casual ward. To a woman who is an habitual vagrant the workhouse would probably be a deterrent.

406. In many workhouses there are receiving wards where female vagrants could well be lodged for a night or two; but in any case we do not think that there need be any insuperable difficulty in arranging for their reception. If they are able-bodied, their services will be useful in many workhouses for domestic work, as there is often a difficulty in getting sufficient help from the ordinary inmates. From the point of view of the woman the change from the casual wards to the workhouse will be of considerable benefit. In the workhouse she will be given other clothes to work in, and will thus avoid the hards.h.i.+p of which Mrs. Higgs complains. Moreover, she will receive better treatment generally, and, in many cases, may be brought under reformatory influences which in the casual wards she would escape. In the case of children, also, the workhouse is obviously a more suitable place than the casual ward.

407. We suggest that admission should be on an order from a relieving officer or a.s.sistant relieving officer,[161] or, in sudden or urgent cases, on the authority of the master of the workhouse, and that discharge should be subject to the notice which is now required in the case of ordinary inmates of the workhouse. The possession of a way ticket would ent.i.tle a woman to admission to the workhouses on her route, and if she was tramping with her husband she should be allowed to discharge herself on the morning after admission so as to join her husband. It is not likely that such cases would be numerous.

408. The removal of women from the casual wards will be of material a.s.sistance in connection with our proposal for placing the control of the wards in the hands of the police. It will greatly simplify the provision of the necessary casual wards, and there will be no need, as now, for a female staff. We think, however, that in the case of some of the larger casual wards now existing, where ample provision both in accommodation and staff has been made for the reception of female vagrants, it may be desirable, for some time after the transfer of the wards to the police authority, to continue to receive females in them.

We do not contemplate that any such arrangement as this should be other than temporary, and we trust that it will be found practicable eventually to establish a uniform system throughout the country.

409. Apart from the reception of women into the workhouse, we do not propose that their treatment should differ materially from that proposed for men. The female habitual vagrant should, we think, be liable to be sent to a labour colony, which, of course, should be one appropriated to women only. We do not antic.i.p.ate that there will be many cases which will need to be sent to a labour colony, and probably one or two inst.i.tutions for the whole country would be sufficient. It seems to us that there would be special advantage in these being provided--at any rate, in the first instance--by private enterprise, and it is possible that there are inst.i.tutions at present in existence which might properly be certified for this purpose. They should be subject, in so far as they are used for the compulsory detention of vagrant women, to the inspection and control of the Home Office.

410. We are inclined to accept the view that the question of female vagrants is comparatively unimportant,[162] and that if the men are removed, the women and children will soon disappear from the roads.

Without the men, the women will find it easy to maintain themselves, and their case will present little difficulty.