Chapter V: Why Do Men Leave Home?

Why are there tramps and hobos? What are the conditions and motives that make migratory workers, vagrants, homeless men? Attempts to answer these questions have invariably raised other questions even more difficult to answer. Homeless men themselves are not always agreed in regard to the matter. The younger men put the blame upon circumstance and external conditions. The older men, who know life better, are humbler. They are disposed to go to the other extreme and put all the blame on themselves.

10. “My old man tried his d--dest to get me to go to
school; but no, I couldn’t learn anything in school. I
could make my own way. I could get along without the old
man or his advice. Well, when I woke up I was forty years
old, of course it was too late. I couldn’t go back. That’s
what’s the matter with half of these d--d kids on the road.
No one can tell them anything. They’re burning up to learn
something on their own hook; and they’ll learn it, too.”

From the records and observations of a great many men the reasons why men leave home seem to fall under several heads: (_a_) seasonal work and unemployment, (_b_) industrial inadequacy, (_c_) defects of personality, (_d_) crises in the life of the person, (_e_) racial or national discrimination, and (_f_) wanderlust.

SEASONAL WORK AND UNEMPLOYMENT

Chief among the economic causes why men leave home are (1) seasonal occupations, (2) local changes in industry, (3) seasonal fluctuations in the demand for labor, and (4) periods of unemployment. The cases of homeless men studied in Chicago show how these conditions of work tend to require and to create the migratory worker.

1) The industrial attractions of seasonal work often make a powerful appeal to the foot-loose man and boy. A new railroad that is building, a mining camp just opening up, an oil boom widely advertised, a bumper crop to be harvested in Kansas or the Dakotas fire the imagination and bring thousands of recruits each year into the army of seasonal and migratory workers.

11. Fifty-eight years old and born in Belgium. He came to
this country with his parents in 1882. His family moved to
a farm in northern Wisconsin where they remained several
years. The boy worked during his spare time in the woods.
His father soon became tired of farming and decided he
could do better in the coal camps of southern Illinois, for
he had been a miner in Belgium. After the family moved, the
boy grew restless in the mining town and decided to return
to his old home town in Wisconsin where he could get a job
in the woods which was more to his liking. For several
years he divided his time between the northern woods in
winter and the mines at his Illinois home in summer. But
he never liked coal mining and later began to go to the
harvest fields for his summer employment. Sometimes he
worked on railroad construction or at other seasonal work.
He has spent several winters in Chicago, and usually (he
says) he has been able to pay his way. However this year,
1921-22, he has been eating some at the missions.

This case shows the steps by which a stationary seasonal worker becomes a migratory worker. It indicates how easily and naturally the migrant may sink still lower in the economic scale until he spends his winters in Hobohemia “feeding at the missions.”

2) Local changes in industry dislocate the routine of work of the wage-earner. The timber in certain regions gives out, mines close down when the ore is exhausted or when prices drop, or in the reorganization of an industry a branch factory may be abandoned. Under these circumstances, certain workers are compelled to look elsewhere for employment. Those who are free to move naturally migrate. The following case is that of a migratory worker who with the passing of the West finds it difficult to make the necessary adjustment.

12. A. is the pioneer type of hobo. He came to Chicago
because he was pressed eastward by the closing down of the
mines in the West. He is about fifty years old. He was born
in southern Illinois but grew restless on the farm. He left
home in his teens to drive a team on the railroad grades.
He moved West with the railroad building. He got into the
mining game at Cripple Creek, and then turned prospector.
He spent a couple of years in the mines of Alaska. He has
never been able to attach himself to an old established
camp. He has worked in the mines of northern Michigan but
did not like it there. He regrets that he came East. He
says that he was never so hopelessly down in the West. He
plans to go back where he knows people and where he can go
out and get some kind of a job when he feels like going to
work.

This man always carried a bundle in the West. He laments
that he found it necessary to throw his bed away when he
came East. He claims that a man with a bed and a desire
to work can get along better in the West than he has seen
anyone get along here. Out there he only went to town four
or five times a year. The rest of the time he was out in
the hills. Out there he could always find work (until this
recent industrial depression), but here he has not seen any
jobs he cares for.

3) Seasonal fluctuations in the demand for labor accompanied by the seasonal rise and fall in wages have greatly affected the ebb and flow of workers.

Industrial fluctuations may be classed as cyclical and
seasonal. Cyclical fluctuations result from business
depressions and at times double the amount of loss of
time during a year, which is illustrated by the fact that
the railroads employed 236,000 fewer men in 1908 than in
1907. Seasonal fluctuations may either be inappreciable,
as in municipal utilities, or may displace nearly the
entire labor force. The seasonal fluctuations in the
canning industry in California, for example, involve nearly
nine-tenths of all the workers; in logging camps, which
depend upon the snow, operations are practically suspended
in summer; while in the brick and tile industry only 36.5
per cent of the total number of employees are retained
during the dull season. Irregularities in the conduct of
industry and in the method of employing labor are evident
in dock work, in the unskilled work in iron and steel,
and in slaughtering and meat packing; in the competitive
conditions in industries which force employers to cut
labor cost down to the utmost and to close down in order
to save operating expenses; in speculative practices which
result in the piling up of orders and alternate periods
of rush production and inactivity; in loss of time due
to inefficient management within plants. In some cases
it has been charged, although without definite proof,
that irregularity of employment is due to a deliberate
policy of employers in order to lessen the chance of
organized movement, as well as to keep the level of wages
down in unskilled occupations by continually hiring new
individuals.[13]

4) Periods of unemployment throw hundreds of thousands of men out of work. But the effects of unemployment are not ended with the passing of the period of business depression. The majority of men, it is true, return to work with their economic efficiency little if any impaired by the stress and strain of uncertainty and deprivation. But upon thousands of men the enforced period of idleness has had a disorganizing effect.[14] The demoralizing effect of being out of work is particularly marked upon the unskilled laborer. His regular routine of work has been interrupted; habits of loafing are easily acquired. The path of personal degradation may lead to the “bread line” at the mission, and from there to panhandling in the Loop.

An increasingly large number of laborers go downward
instead of upward. Young men, full of ambition and high
hopes for the future start their life as workers, but
meeting failure after failure in establishing themselves
in some trade or calling, their ambitions and hopes go
to pieces, and they gradually sink into the ranks of
migratory and casual workers. Continuing their existence
in these ranks they begin to lose self-respect and
become “hobos.” Afterwards, acquiring certain negative
habits, as those of drinking, begging, and losing all
self-control, self-respect, and desire to work, they
become “down-and-outs”--tramps, bums, vagabonds, gamblers,
pickpockets, yeggmen, and other petty criminals--in short,
public parasites, the number of whom seems to be growing
faster than the general population.[15]

THE INDUSTRIALLY INADEQUATE

Every year thousands of men fail in the struggle for existence. For one reason or another, they cannot, or at least they do not, keep the pace set by modern large-scale industry. These men are “misfits,” industrially inadequate.

The majority of individuals, commonly regarded as industrially inadequate, are probably feeble-minded or restless types like the emotionally unstable and the egocentric and fall into the group of defective personalities to be considered later. Other causes of industrial incompetency are (1) physical handicaps due to accidents, sickness, or occupational diseases; (2) alcoholism and drug addiction; and (3) old age.

1) The workers in certain industries are exposed to dangerous dusts and gases. The printers have learned the risks of their trade and endeavor to cope with them. Other industries have taken steps to eliminate industrial hazards. Many transients are miners who go from one job to another exposing themselves to different dangers.

13. O. O. is fifty-three years old and he has been a
migrant for many years. He has been a lumber jack and a
harvest hand. He has tried his hand at various casual
jobs but most of his time has been spent in the mines.
He used to work in the most dangerous mines because they
generally pay the most money. Three years ago (about 1919)
while working in the copper mines in Butte, Montana, he
contracted miner’s “con,” which is some sort of lung
trouble. He had no place to go, could not hold a job, and
has wandered about the country ever since. He has no hope
of regaining his health and is too proud to return to his
people who live in Ohio.

Other industries also have their victims.

14. G. T. came from the New England states. He was
wandering about the country in hope of regaining his
health. He was a textile worker and claims that the dyes
and dust were the cause of his condition. There was no
means at hand of proving his story but the fact that he was
in ill health, very much underweight, and he was not able
to do heavy work. Numerous times he was rebuked because he
asked for light work.

Many men in Hobohemia have limbs or parts of limbs missing, or bent and twisted bodies. These are victims of industrial or non-industrial accidents.

15. Red begs and sometimes peddles pencils along Halsted
Street. He lost his leg several years ago while working in
the coal mines. In his sober moments he claims that his
own carelessness was partly to blame for his loss, but he
also holds that the company was negligent. His leg at first
had only been bruised and he went back to work in a damp,
cold place, and inflammation set in. He has since become
accommodated to a life of begging and peddling.

2) Alcoholism decreases the economic efficiency of the worker and so tends to depress him into the group of homeless men. Before prohibition the saloon had no better patron than the homeless man. In Chicago today bootleggers and blind pigs in the vicinity of the “stem” thrive upon the homeless man’s love for liquor.

16. E. J. loafs on West Madison Street and South State
Street. He drinks and does not care who knows it. He has
been a drinking man for years. “Booze put me on the bum.
Now, I’m here and I’m too old to be good for anything, so
why not keep it up? You’re goin’ t’ die when your time
comes anyway; so why not keep it up?” His philosophy helps
him to live and he lives as well as he can by begging a
little, working when any jobs come his way. He used to be
a carpenter but has lost his efficiency at that trade. He
threw up his membership in the union several years ago.

Drinking is responsible for keeping many men on the road. One man said that he left home because he had too many drinking friends. He has been on the road for several years but wherever he goes he finds other drinking friends. An old man refuses to live with his children in the country because he cannot get his “morning’s morning” while with them. They have written him time and again but he does not answer.

Drug addiction likewise decreases the industrial efficiency of its victims. Drug addicts among homeless men seldom are transient. Those who are transient are often cocaine users who are able to do without the drug for considerable periods of time. Not infrequently “coke heads” or “snow-birds” are found among the hobo workers. When on out-of-town jobs, they are prone to go to town occasionally to indulge in a cocaine spree much as a “booze-hoister” indulges in a liquor spree. When their money is gone they return to work and do not touch the “snow” for weeks or months. Users of heroin or morphine are not able to separate themselves from the source of supply for so long a time.

Because of the secret nature of the practice, the extent of drug addiction among homeless men is unknown. Men who use drugs are loath to disclose the fact to anyone but drug users. The drug addict employs every scheme to keep his practice a secret whereas the drinking man strives to share his joy with others. The fear of being discovered drives many addicts from the circle of their family and friends and many of them drift into the homeless man areas where they enjoy the maximum seclusion.

17. The investigator was accosted by a beggar in the Loop.
He was impressed by the fervor and the hurry with which
the man begged him and was away. He followed the man for
several blocks and watched him accost more than a hundred
persons, all men. The only men from whom he failed to
solicit were those accompanied by women. If two men were
standing two or three yards apart he accosted each one
individually. Only one or two men gave him anything. Most
of them looked with suspicion at him, and not without
reason, for although he was fairly well dressed he was
very dirty and his clothes looked as if he had been
sleeping out. He had a pallid, leaden complexion, and he
had a ten days’ growth of beard. He had a wild, hunted
expression and impressed the investigator as being a drug
addict. He continued to follow the man and engaged him in
conversation. He learned that he had just beat his way from
Boston. He had ridden passenger trains all the way and had
come in less than three days. His only difficulty was in
Buffalo where he says that a policeman pulled him off the
train and beat him. Why he left Boston he would not say. He
denied being a “dope” then and it was not till three days
later when he was seen in Grant Park that he admitted the
fact. He came to Chicago because he knew more people here
and was certain of getting morphine.

Drug users need as much as three or four dollars a day, and even more, to supply their wants. As a rule they are physically unfit to earn a living. They cannot live as the hobos do because the average hobo does not have money enough to buy drugs. They may be forced to live in cheap hotels and to eat in cheap restaurants but only to save money to satisfy the craving for “dope.” Drug addicts wander very little except to make rapid trips from city to city. The drug addict tends to become a criminal rather than a migratory worker. Their natural habitat is the great city.

3) Many old men in the tramp class are not able to work and are too independent to go to the almshouse. Some of them have spent their lives on the road. These old, homeless men usually find their way to the larger cities. Unlike the younger men they have no dreams and no longer burn with the desire to travel. Many have been self-supporting until they were overtaken by senility. It is pitiable to see an old man tottering along the streets living a hand-to-mouth existence.

18. J. is an old man who lives in a cheap hotel on South
Desplaines Street, where a few cents a day will house him.
He is seventy-two, very bent and gray. Once he was picked
up on the street in winter and sent to the hospital where
he remained a day or two and was transferred to the poor
house at Oak Forest. He ran away from the poor house two
years ago and has managed to live. He seldom gets more
than a block or two from his lodging. Even today (1923) he
may be seen on a cold day shivering without an overcoat
on Madison Street. He is a good beggar and manages to get
from fifty cents to a dollar a day from the “boys” on
the “stem.” Sometimes during the warm weather he makes
excursions of three to five blocks away on begging tours.
He is exceedingly feeble and walking that distance is hard
work for him. Work is out of the question. There are very
few jobs that he could manage.

This case is typical. During the summer time, when it is possible to sit outdoors in comfort, numbers of old men may be found in groups on the pavements or in the parks. In winter they are too much occupied seeking food and shelter.

The physically handicapped and industrially inefficient individuals are numerous among the homeless men. The handicap is, in part at least, the reason of their presence in that class. Competition with able-bodied workers forces them into the scrap heap.

DEFECTS OF PERSONALITY

Psychological and sociological studies of vagabondage in France, Italy, and Germany have led to the conclusion that the vagabond is primarily a psychopathic type.[16] The findings of European psychopathologists are, of course, the result of case-studies of beggars and wanderers in these countries and cannot without reservation be accepted for the United States. Undoubtedly there are large numbers of individuals with defects of personalities among American hobos and tramps, but there are also large numbers of normal individuals. The American tradition of pioneering, wanderlust, seasonal employment, attract into the group of wanderers and migratory workers a great many energetic and venturesome normal boys and young men.

William Healy, for several years director of the Psychopathic Institute of Chicago, sums up the relation of mental deficiency to vagabondage in these words:

We have seen vagabondage in connection with
feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, dementia precox, but we
have also seen the same behavior in normal boys who had
conceived a grudge, with or without good reasons, against
home conditions. Again, we have seen normal lads who have
been seeking larger experiences in this way.[17]

Dr. Healy’s observations were made primarily with juveniles, but he adds cautiously a conclusion as to the explanation of adult vagabondage:

When vagabondage is continued beyond the unstable years
of adolescence, generalizations on the character of the
individuals are more likely to be correct. But even here
the only chance of adequate conception of the relationship
between the behavior and the type of individual who engages
in it is to be found in a personal study of him.

The proportion of feeble-minded is popularly supposed to be higher among the migratory and casual laborer than in the general population. In the earlier studies, only the most obvious cases of mental defect were noted. Mrs. Solenberger by common-sense observation or medical examinations found only eighty-nine of the one thousand men she examined to be feeble-minded, epileptic, or insane.[18]

In recent years mental tests have been given to small groups of unemployed men, in which the types of the hobo, tramp, and bum were well represented. Knollin found 20 per cent of the 150 hobos he tested feeble-minded.[19] Pintner and Toops examined two groups of applicants at Ohio free employment agencies by standardized tests other than the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon. Of the 94 men taking the tests at Columbus, 28.7 per cent were diagnosed as feeble-minded. Of the 40 unemployed men examined at Dayton 7.5 per cent were assigned to the feeble-minded class.[20] Glenn R. Johnson gave the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon tests to 107 men out of work in Portland, and found 18 per cent feeble-minded, i.e., under twelve years mental age.[21] As he had expected, he found the proportion of inferior intelligence lower than that of the 62 business men and high-school students upon which Terman had standardized his tests for adults, but he also found among hobos a higher percentage of superior adults. He found also that the higher the intelligence of the individual the shorter the period of holding a job among the unemployed. The testing of an unselected group of 653 men in the army by the Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon tests affords an interesting opportunity for a comparison with the results of the Portland study.

This comparison would indicate that the intelligence of the unemployed is not lower, but, if anything, higher than that of the adult males tested in army camps. Apparently other factors than intelligence are decisive in determining whether an individual is employable or unemployable, or whether he makes or fails to make an adequate adjustment in the normal routine of industrial organization.

The defects in personality commonly found in the cases of homeless men studied in Chicago are those noted by the students of vagabondage and unemployment, namely, feeble-mindedness, constitutional inferiority, emotional instability, and egocentricity. In a survey of 100 cases of unemployment which had been received as patients in the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, Dr. Herman M. Adler found that 43 fell into the class of _paranoid personality_ (egocentricity). The next largest group of 35 cases was assigned to the class of _inadequate personality_ (mentally defective or feeble-minded). The remaining cases, 22 in number, were diagnosed as _emotionally unstable personality_. An analysis of the months employed per case showed that the emotionally unstable group averages 50 months to each job; the inadequate group 24.7 months to each job; and the paranoid group 20.6 months to each job.[22]

MENTAL CAPACITY OF ARMY GROUP AND OF PORTLAND UNEMPLOYED AS MEASURED BY STANFORD-BINET

============+=============+============
| ARMY GROUP | PORTLAND
MENTAL AGE | | UNEMPLOYED
+-------------+------------
| 653 Cases | 105 Cases
------------+-------------+------------
| Per Cent | Per Cent
5 | 0.2 |
6 | 0.3 |
7 | 0.2 | 1.9
8 | 3.4 | 1.9
9 | 9.5 | 3.8
10 | 10.1 | 6.7
11 | 10.6 | 5.7
12 | 12.4 | 8.6
13 | 10.6 | 16.2
14 | 11.8 | 18.1
15 | 9.6 | 11.4
16 | 8.3 | 9.5
17 | 7.2 | 7.6
18 | 5.2 | 7.6
19 | 0.8 | 2.9
------------+-------------+------------

Many individuals not feeble-minded find their way into the group of casual and migratory workers by reason of other defects of personality, for example, emotional instability and egocentricity. Among transient laborers the very great turnover cannot be entirely accounted for by industrial conditions. Much of their shifting from scene to scene is indicative of their emotional instability and restlessness.

19. W. E. was born in a little village in Kentucky. His
first job away from home was on the section. When he
learned that it was the meanest job on the railroad he
decided to change. He got a job on an extra-gang where he
moved about considerably, worked in several towns during
the summer. Later got a steady job on a farm but he soon
tired of “eating at the same table day after day” and he
went to Kansas City where he worked in a box factory. He
became expert at it but soon tired of using the same tools,
and working as fast as possible day after day, and he
changed. He worked in several factories making boxes but
there was no difference. Then with his meager experience
with tools he got in the maintenance of way work of a
railroad. Here he had some variety and remained a year.
Decided he wanted to work in the mines and he got a job
timbering. Later he tried his hand at millwright work but
he soon quit that and went back to the bridge gang. He
still goes to town every month or two to spend his money
and each time he goes out to some different job.

In hard times when work is scarce and wages are low, voluntary quitting of jobs is much less than in good times. Hobos are easily piqued and they will “walk off” the job on the slightest pretext, even when they have the best jobs and living conditions are relatively good. Hobo philosophy is disposed to represent the man who is a long time on the job as a piker. He ought to leave a job once in a while simply to assert his independence and to learn something else about other jobs. The following case shows the relation of instability and egocentricity to labor turnover:

20. Yes, Pete had had plenty of good jobs, but something
had always gone against him. At one place not long ago they
wanted him to continue work in spite of the dust which was
blowing everywhere. Another rude employer never spoke to
him (or any other of the employees) politely.

No one should work for a man like that. Upon another
occasion the boss suggested reform of a certain habit--as
if he had any right to tell an American citizen what he
ought to do.

He had worked at almost everything, but it went against his
very nature to do one thing very long. He would, in two
or three weeks, quit and look for a different occupation.
Why he quit, I am sure he didn’t know. “Independence,”
“Justice,” and “American Equality” furnished the material
for his excuses, but they were only excuses.

A survey of the so-called “intellectuals” of Hobohemia reveals a group of egocentric and rebellious natures who decry most things that are. Intellectuals, just because they are highly organized and specialized, are very likely to become misfits outside of the environment to which they artificially are adapted. When, added to this handicap, they lack the discipline which a regular occupation affords they are likely to become quite impossible.

21. H. has a great chart that he uses to preach evolution
to the curbstone audiences. He has learned a few scientific
terms from one or two books he has read. He has no use for
the modern scientists. He considers them heretic. He is a
student of Darwin “and those old-timers.” When pinned down
he is not able to discuss clearly what contributions the
old-timers made or what they believed.

22. D. H. is a student of economics according to Karl Marx.
He has no room in his thinking for any contribution of any
other man. Indeed, he does not think that anyone has made
any contribution since Marx. One of his stock phrases is
“Now get this into your heads. I am making it simple so
that you can understand it.”

23. B. is writing a novel. He has been working on it for
several years. He also writes songs, popular songs. But
he has never sold a song nor has he ever been able to
interest a publisher in his novel. He calls the publishers
a lot of grafters and claims that they are in league to
keep the poor writers down.

24. L. is a soap-box orator. He has one hobby. He is
a single-taxer. He is a great believer in Lincoln,
Washington, Jefferson. To him there is only one problem, to
find out who is exploiting the people, and there is only
one remedy and that the single tax. He will entertain no
argument against the single tax. Anyone who does not share
his opinion is to be pitied.

The intellectuals are frequently egocentric. They are obsessed by some peculiar point of view. As egocentrics they are in conflict with the rest of the world. Their cry is often a lament and just as often a justification or defense.

A study of individual cases seems to indicate that there is a large proportion of inadequate personalities among homeless men. The following cases indicate the variety of ways in which personal defects lead to a migratory existence which lands them eventually at the bottom of the social scale.

25. D. is a man who could not get along at home. He was
continually into difficulty with his father. He always had
ideas and schemes that his father thought foolish and he
was never permitted to carry any of them out. He still has
the habit of working up schemes and programs. One week he
will be writing a play. Again he will be inventing some
mechanical device. He has tried several different courses
in mechanical engineering but has not completed any of them.

26. F. has an idea that he can become a singer but he
refuses to spend his time in the rigid and arduous training
that would be required. He buys cheap books on voice
culture. When he gets money enough ahead to take lessons he
forgets his musical ambition and drinks or gambles.

27. L. was the “simple Simon” in his home town. During the
war he was rejected for military service so he decided to
go to the city to work. Here he earned fair money, more
than at home. The people at home used to tease him but
at first he got by fairly well in Minneapolis. Later he
went to Detroit because the fellows where he worked in
Minneapolis used “to run him.” They used to tease him in
Detroit and he left two jobs there on that account. He is
the type of person that invites teasing. He puts himself
in the way of it but resents it if it reaches a certain
extent. With the slack season in industry in 1921-22 he had
a hard time to get along but he would not return home.

28. H. is a man who thinks that he is getting the worst of
every deal he has with others. He says that at home he was
imposed on by his people so he left. He is always on the
lookout for plots directed against him. If he is working
along with others on a job and a bad piece of work falls
his way he concludes that it happened purposely. However,
he is ready to gloat over favors. His best efforts are made
to ingratiate himself with others. Whenever he leaves a
place, he does so with bitterness in his heart. He usually
keeps his grudge to himself.

29. M. is a good worker but a transient. He behaves well
when sober but he becomes quarrelsome when drunk. If he is
not discharged because of a drunken scene he usually quits
voluntarily because he feels ashamed of himself. He argues
a great deal when sober but he has the ability to control
himself. His periods of drunkenness last from a week to ten
days and are staged whenever his finances will permit. Not
infrequently he is arrested while drunk.

CRISES IN THE LIFE OF THE PERSON

Crises in the life of the person, as family conflict, for example, the feeling of failure, disgrace or embarrassment, the fear of punishment for the commission of an offense may cause a man to desert home and community. With the severance of family and social ties the man or boy is all the more likely to drift aimlessly from place to place, and at last perhaps find himself permanently in the group of migratory and casual laborers.

Conflict at home forces many men and boys into the group of homeless men. Not infrequently boys run away from home because of difficulties with their people. One youth says that his father tried to tell him “where to head in at,” and he “wouldn’t stand for it.” Another boy could not get along with his brothers who were older than he. They tried to “boss” him.

Many men in Hobohemia manifest no inclination to wander but are as completely cut off from their home associations as are the migrants. These men of the “home guard” types may have had trouble with their parents or with their wives.

30. H. claims that he was married and that he held a job
as traveling salesman. He maintained an apartment on the
South Side where he left his wife while he was away on
trips through the Southwest. His story is that his wife
was untrue to him and he divorced her. This experience
“broke him up” so that he quit his job and went West where
he remained a year. Today he loafs on West Madison Street
and blames his wife for his failure in life. The divorced
wife’s story learned from other sources lays considerable
of the responsibility at his feet. This much of his story
is true: he was not in the tramp class before he married.
The circumstances surrounding his home trouble were
unfortunate and were partly due to the shortcomings of both.

31. G. lays the blame for his condition upon family
trouble. He has not lived with his wife for nine years.
They are not divorced because he and his wife are both
Catholic and do not believe in it. He worked most of the
time before their separation and claims that he owned his
own home which is now in the possession of his wife. What
his wife is doing now he does not know nor does he know
anything about their child. He is content where he is;
doing just enough work to pay expenses.

Deaths in a family will sometimes turn a person out into the world and he may drift into the hobo and tramp group.

32. M.’s father died when he was about six years old. Five
years later his mother died. Kindly neighbors took him in
charge by turns. It seemed to him that wherever he was the
people would parade the fact that they were taking “care
of” someone else’s child. It was charity. He stayed with
several different families. Some of them he liked and
others he didn’t. Some sent him to school and others didn’t
seem to care what became of him. More than one family
tried to pass him on to others on the ground that it was
too much of an expense. When he began to be old enough to
work then they all wanted him. He hated it all so he left
the country. He came through Chicago on his way to Texas.
(A sixteen-year-old boy and small for his age.) He said he
had a brother in the cavalry who was stationed in Texas.
The brother tried to persuade him to wait till he had saved
enough money to pay his fare but he preferred to take his
“chances,” so he was “beating his way.”

Embarrassing situations often make it easier to leave home than to remain and face the criticism or sympathy of the public. On the road, a man is more or less immune to attacks upon his self-consciousness and self-respect, for his relations to other persons are loose and transient and he has no status to maintain. The opposite is true in his home town where his every act is known.

33. One man who works in and near Chicago claims that
he was put on the “bum” by a woman. He was to have been
married to this girl and prepared for the wedding in good
faith. A few days before the ceremony she ran away with
another man. He was laughed at by his friends and rather
than remain and for a long time be the butt of the joke, he
packed his things and has not been back since. His home is
in a country town in southern Illinois, and although he has
been near the place several times during the past ten years
he has never returned.

34. F. is another case of injured pride. For some boyish
prank he had been sent to the reformatory for three years.
Upon his release he was given transportation home and
started in high glee. His people met him at the station
and took him home. Although he was treated well he felt
uncomfortable. “They treated me good because I happened
to be a part of the family. I felt like I didn’t belong
there, so as soon as it got dark I skinned out. They write
to me to come back and maybe I will after a while.” He is
an average man of the migratory worker type. He comes to
Chicago when he has money and when he is “broke” he goes
out on some job and is not seen for two or three months or
until he has another stake. He gets arrested now and then
but only on petty offenses that he commits while drunk.

The following case shows that a sense of failure and fear of ridicule may force a boy to leave his home community:

35. This lad was working in a grocery store at the age of
twelve. He became dissatisfied with the job and asked for
a raise which was denied. He was somewhat embarrassed at
being set back and lest he be laughed at for staying on
after making a demand he quit. Someone asked him what he
would do since there was no other job to be had. This was
really another challenge and he met it with the reply that
Podunk was not the only place to work. He left home to make
his bluff good.

He met with many reverses. He was small and no one wanted
to hire him. So he begged and he “managed.” Sometimes he
did odd jobs, but he didn’t go home. Other people had left
home and come back beaten and had to take the “horse laugh”
and he did not admire any of them. He couldn’t think of
going back unless he had more money than when he left and
better clothes, so he went on. He learned to like the road
and he traveled over the country for about two years before
he went back. When he did return he was in a position to
talk. He had some money to spend, he had seen the country.
He had been East and West, and he had been to sea. He had
something to talk about. But he only remained in his home
town long enough to stir up admiration and envy and he
was off again. He is still under twenty-one and is still
traveling in response to the same urge.

Other individuals began their migratory career by fleeing from the consequences of some offense. If the offense is of such gravity that the consequences seem to outweigh the advantages of remaining in the community, then flight is the natural course.

36. A. states that he left home to avoid the wrath of his
father. He had been to town with the horse and buggy. On
the way home the horse became excited, left the road, ran
into a post, and broke the buggy. His father was absent
for the day and he and his brothers tried to repair the
buggy so that the parent would not suspect. It could not
be fixed and they all knew what the consequences would be.
The brothers helped him pack up and he ran away. He did not
return for three years; then it was only to remain for a
short time.

37. Red left home because he feared the consequences of an
affair with a woman. He claims that the woman had relations
with another man and that he was not sure that the child
would be his. The other man was a Mexican and Red says that
he has heard since that the child is a dark-skinned little
fellow and that eases his conscience.

38. O. could not get along with his wife. They were
divorced and he was ordered by the court to pay her thirty
dollars a month. He paid it faithfully for a couple of
months and then failed for a month or two. She had him
arrested and he agreed to make good. As soon as he was
released, he fled the country. He has been living in and
about Chicago the past year. It has been two or three years
since he left home. He has not communicated with his home
because he fears arrest. His alimony bill has mounted to
terrifying proportions. He hopes that his wife is married
again.

RACIAL AND NATIONAL DISCRIMINATION

In certain situations racial or national traits cause discrimination in employment and so result in a descent from regular to casual work. So far as selection for employment is adverse to the Negroes they tend to recruit the ranks of homeless men. During the war, a much higher proportion of foreign-born of German origin was observed on West Madison Street than had previously been reported. Interviews with certain Russians on the “main stem” in the spring of 1922 suggest that the public disapproval of Bolshevism had reacted unfavorably on the chances for employment of this nationality in the United States.

WANDERLUST

Wanderlust is a longing for new experience. It is the yearning to see new places, to feel the thrill of new sensations, to encounter new situations, and to know the freedom and the exhilaration of being a stranger.

In its pure form the desire for new experience results
in motion, change, danger, instability, social
irresponsibility. It is to be seen in simple form in the
prowling and meddling activities of the child, and the
love of adventure and travel in the boy and man. It ranges
in moral quality from the pursuit of game and the pursuit
of pleasure to the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit
of ideals. It is found equally in the vagabond and the
scientific explorer.[23]

Even those of us who seem to have settled down quite
comfortably to exacting routine are sometimes intolerably
stirred by the wanderlust. It comes upon us unaware; and
often we cut away and go. There are automobiles, railway
cars, steamships, airplanes--serving little other purpose,
really, than the gratification of wander tendencies.
Usually we do not say it so openly of course; we make good
reasons for travelling, for not “staying put.” Many a
business man has developed a perfect technique for escaping
from his rut; many a laborer has invented a physical
inability to work steadily that lets him out into the
drifting current when monotony sets in on the job. Life is
full of these moral side doors; but we need not view man’s
rationalizing power cynically, merely understandingly.
The escapes he contrives are a damaging critique of the
modern mode of life. We may infer from them the superior
adjustments we strive so blindly toward.[24]

Wanderlust is a wish of the person. Its expression in the form of tramping, “making” the harvest field, roughing it, pioneering, is a social pattern of American life. The fascination of the life of the road is, in part, disclosed in the following case-study.

39. S. who is 19 years old has been a wanderer for nearly
four years. He does not know why he travels except that
he gets thrills out of it. He says that there is nothing
that he likes better than to catch trains out of a town
where the police are rather strict. When he can outwit
the “bulls” he gets a “kick” out of it. He would rather
ride the passenger trains than the freights because he can
“get there” quicker, and then, they are watched closer. He
likes to tell of making “big jumps” on passenger trains as
from the coast to Chicago in five days, or from Chicago to
Kansas City or Omaha in one day. He only works long enough
in one place to get a “grubstake,” or enough money to live
on for a few days.

He says that he knows that he would be better off if he
would settle down at some steady job. He has tried it a
few times but the monotony of it made him so restless that
he had to leave. He thinks that he might be able to stay
in a city if he had a steady job and he agreed to take
such a job if he could get it. Jobs were scarce and the
investigator promised to take him to the United Charities
to help him get placed.

The following morning the lad came to the office with
another boy with whom he had become acquainted that
morning. He had changed his mind about that job but wanted
to thank everyone who had taken an interest in him. He and
his “buddy” were going to “make the Harvest.”

The longing to see the world is often stimulated in a boy by reason of the experiences of some relative or friend whom he admires. One boy went on the road because of the influence his uncle had upon him. The uncle did not advise him to leave home, in fact, he did not know very much about the boy. But the uncle had been to war, and had traveled in China, Alaska, and South America. The boy had to go on the road to become disillusioned. He now knows that his uncle is a plain tramp and that he himself has become a hobo.

40. W. left home when he was sixteen. He was the oldest of
a family of five boys and three girls. His father owned a
farm in Michigan and was usually hard pressed for means.
He needed help at home and so W. was kept out of school a
great deal. When he did go to school it was hard for him
to learn. When the father saw that the younger boys were
passing W. in school he decided that it was time wasted to
send W. to school. W. was big for his age and the father
imposed more work on him than on the other boys who were
smaller. W. felt that he was not getting a square deal so
he ran away.

He remained away a year before he dared to write. One
reason he did not write sooner was because he was not
earning much money, and the other reason was that he
feared his father would hunt him down and force him to
return. When he felt secure he wrote more frequently and
most of his letters were boastful. He told of prospering
and he moved from place to place often to show the other
children at home that he could go and come as he pleased.
He traveled in different parts of the country and from each
part he would write painting his experiences in a rosy hue.

He succeeded in stirring up unrest in the hearts of the
other boys who left home one by one. In about two years N.
followed W. L. soon began to feel that he too could make
“his way” so he left. All five of the boys left home before
they were sixteen. Each felt that he was wasting his time
about home while the other boys were seeing the country and
making good money. Only one of the five boys returned home.
The others roamed the country following migratory work.
One married but only lived with his wife a year and then
deserted her.

The father always blamed W. for leading the boys away. W.
used to send presents to the other members of the family.
He used to send the mother money now and then. He was the
idol of the rest of the children and they left home to
follow in his footsteps.

A visit to the “jungles” at the junction of any railroad or at the outskirts of any large city or even small town reveals the extent to which the tramp is consciously and enthusiastically imitated. Around the camp fire watching the coffee pot boil or the “mulligan” cook, the boys are often found mingling with the tramps and listening in on their stories of adventure.

To boys the tramp is not a problem, but a human being, and an interesting one at that. He has no cares nor burdens to hold him down. All he is concerned with is to live and seek adventure, and in this he personifies the heroes in the stories the boys have read. Tramp life is an invitation to a career of varied experiences and adventures. All this is a promise and a challenge. A promise that all the wishes that disturb him shall be fulfilled and a challenge to leave the work-a-day world that he is bound to.

THE MULTIPLE EXPLANATION

No single cause can be found to explain how a man may be reduced to the status of a homeless, migratory, and casual laborer. In any given case all of the factors analyzed above may have entered into the process of economic and social degradation. Indeed, the conjunction of several of these causes is necessary to explain the extent and the nature of the casualization and mobility of labor in this country. Unemployment and seasonal work disorganize the routine of life of the individual worker and destroy regular habits of work but at the same time thousands of boys and men moved by wanderlust are eager to escape the monotony of stable and settled existence. No matter how perfect a social and economic order may yet be devised there will always remain certain “misfits,” the industrially inadequate, the unstable and egocentric, who will ever tend to conflict with constituted authority in industry, society, and government.

The description, however, of these causes of vagabondage--(_a_) unemployment and seasonal work, (_b_) industrial inadequacy, (_c_) defects of personality, (_d_) crises in the life of the person, (_e_) racial or national discrimination, (_f_) wanderlust--is a necessary condition to any solution of the problem of the homeless man. A program is remedial and not preventive that does not grapple with the fundamental causes here revealed. These causes have roots at the very core of our American life, in our industrial system, in education, cultural and vocational, in family relations, in the problems of racial and immigrant adjustment, and in the opportunity offered or denied by society for the expression of the wishes of the person.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] _Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations_ (1915), pp. 163-64.

[14] B. Seebohm Rountree, _Unemployment; A Social Study_. London, 1911. See especially chap. vii, “Detailed Descriptions of Selected Families,” where the demoralizing effects of unemployment upon the laborer are clearly indicated.

[15] _Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations_ (1915), p. 157.

[16] See Bibliography, p. 287.

[17] _The Individual Delinquent_, pp. 776-79.

[18] _One Thousand Homeless Men_, pp. 88-89.

[19] L. M. Terman, _The Measurement of Intelligence_, p. 18.

[20] Rudolph Pintner and H. A. Toops, “Mental Tests of Unemployed Men,” _Journal of Applied Psychology_, I (1917), 325-41; II (1918), 15-25.

[21] “Unemployment and Feeble-mindedness,” _Journal of Delinquency_, II (1917), 59-73.

[22] Herman M. Adler, “Unemployment and Personality--A Study of Psychopathic Cases,” _Mental Hygiene_, I (January, 1917), 16-24.

[23] R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, _Old World Traits Transplanted_, p. 27.

[24] Rexford Tugwell, “The Gypsy Strain,” _Pacific Review_, pp. 177-78.