TURNING BEGGARS INTO WORKERS

By O. F. Lewis, General Secretary

Prison Association of New York

[In the Summer of 1911, Mr. Lewis traveled through Belgium, Holland, Germany, England and Scotland, studying European methods of dealing with delinquents, and especially the beggar colonies of Central Europe. The following article is a part of one chapter of Mr. Lewisâ€™s report to the Prison Association of New York, which will be presented to the Legislature in 1912. The report has special significance because the state of New York is to build a compulsory farm colony for habitual tramps and vagrants.]

Foreign countries, notably Belgium, Holland and Germany, have had lengthy and varied experience with the problem of vagabondage and mendicancy. Indeed in Central Europe the vagrancy problem is not alone a generation old, but a century old. Napoleon devoted some of his genius to the problem of the suppression of vagabondage. When the Dutch possessed Belgium as well as Holland, Dutch benevolent societies sought the reformation and rehabilitation of the vagabond. A half century ago Holland was segregating over one thousand vagabonds and beggars on the bleak heath in the north of Holland near the Zuyder Zee and already turning the arid plain into a blooming oasis. Belgium was creating fifty years ago local beggar colonies, and recognizing that vagrancy is one of the great social dangers of a nation, a danger increasing inevitably with the progress of civilization. Germany was thirty years ago this year establishing its first voluntary labor colony at Bielefeld in Central Prussia. Pastor von Bodelschwingh, the great organizer of philanthropic institutions for defectives of all kinds, founded with deep religious conviction his first farm colony for the â€œbrothers of the highway.â€ Compulsory workhouses, semi-penal in nature, have come to number about thirty in thekingdom of Prussia, containing not thieves, not cases of assault, not robbers, not other criminals of greater or less degree, but solely vagrants, mendicants, and that despicable class of human beings, the souteneurs, who traffic in human flesh.

Today the accumulated experience of generations can be found in the records and in the methods of administration of Belgian beggar colonies, Dutch vagrancy colonies, German free labor colonies and German compulsory workhouses. It is unthinkable that the United States, ever ready in commercial and industrial lines to profit not only by the mistakes but by the successes of other nations, will be blind to the wealth of experience that European countries can offer us.

With the purpose of rendering a slight contribution to American information on this subject, a considerable part of my last summerâ€™s tour in Belgium, Holland, Germany, England and Scotland, as general secretary of the prison association of New York, was devoted to the first-hand study of the administration of institutions for vagrants and mendicants and the study also of their history and of the laws under which at various times they have been operated. In several chapters following this introductory chapter I present a somewhat careful study of Merxplas the world-famous beggar colony of Belgium; of Veenhuizen, the less known but remarkably interesting vagrancy colony of Holland; of the free labor colonies and the compulsory workhouses of Prussia and Germany; and of conditions and problems of vagrancy in England and Scotland.

Several general observations may well precede the special chapters.

1. In all four of the countries above mentioned (Belgium, Holland, England and Scotland) the correctional institutions in which vagrants and mendicants are confined are under the same governing body as that which governs the prisons. In Belgium and Holland, the department of justice controls the beggar colonies and the vagrancy colonies. In England and Scotland the boards of prison commissioners are the governing bodies not only for the convict prisons in which the more serious offenders are imprisoned, but also the local prisons, which are the places of imprisonment of beggars and mendicants. In Prussia, the ArbeitshÃ¢user (compulsory workhouses) are under provincial, not royal control. In short, in Prussia compulsory workhouses are county institutions, or in the case of Berlin municipal institutions, rather than state institutions. We find, herefore, in Holland and Belgium special institutions for the imprisonment of vagrants and mendicants controlled by the state, in Prussia special institutions for the imprisonment of vagrants and mendicants controlled by the provinces corresponding in general to our American counties; we find in England and Scotland local prisons, not specially designated for vagrants and mendicants, controlled by the state through boards of prison commissioners. While in Prussia the American student might perhaps expect under provincial (county) management a condition analogous to the indifferent if not highly neglectful management of correctional institutions so familiar to American students, where politics rule in county affairs, the fact is that the Prussian county compulsory workhouses are managed with that German thoroughness, efficiency, and integrity which makes these county institutions, so far as my observations went, fully comparable with the management of the state prisons and penitentiaries.

The important point is that the state, or in Prussia the county, can organize and operate its institutions for vagrants and mendicants independent of petty local prejudices or ignorance, and regardless of pernicious political influences. If the state concludes to institute in its labor colonies or other institutions an innovation or a method well tested elsewhere, it has the power. As with us in New York, state institutions are in general far better managed than the local institutions, so in European countries I visited the principle of state control and operation of all correctional institutions is held to be fundamentally correct. If in Prussia the local institutions were poorly managed, undoubtedlythe state would seek to step in and take over the management of these institutions. Briefly then, it can be stated that state control and operation of institutions for the treatment of vagrants and tramps is a principle justified by European experience.

2. In all European countries visited, I found a most admirable absence of political influence. Repeatedly it was impressed upon me by high authorities that politics play no deleterious part in the appointments of officials, high or low, in the course of justice. To be sure each country has its political parties, but the integrity of men in office is, I was informed, rarely if ever questioned. Positions such as secretary-general of the department of justice, which office carries with it in Holland and Belgium the administration of prisons and other correctional institutions, or that of the head of the Prussian prison system, or that of chairman of the prison commissioners of England or Scotland is practically a position of life tenure, during good behavior. Governors and directors of prisons, and subordinate officials as well, hold office without fear of removal for any cause except dereliction of duty, incompetency or immorality. Frequently indeed was the plea made to me: â€œUrge above all things the removal of American prisons from politics.â€ In short, the type of prison employee from governor down to the list of attendants is, from the standard of integrity, admirable in all countries I visited. That such conditions make for good service through the elimination of the worry as to tenure and through the elimination of voluntary or compulsory dishonesty under the pressure of political influences is self-evident.

3. On the continent vagrants and mendicants as found in the colonies and in the compulsory workhouses are very noticeably different from our typical tramp or vagrant, in that the European tramp in prison is much older than our typical youthful or young adult wanderer. In Merxplas and in Veenhuizen the young tramp was a rarity. Perhaps ninety-five per cent. of the population of the colonies was at least forty-five years old. The population of the several compulsory workhouses visited in Prussia averaged somewhat younger, but nevertheless was considerably older than the average age of our tramp army.

Added to this was the fact, everywhere observable, that the great majority of the tramps and vagrants possessed a trade. They could accomplish at least moderate results with their hands and they seemed to wish to do satisfactory work to a reasonable extent. As illustrations I cite the tailoring department, the shoe making department and the trunk department at Merxplas, and the weaving and the carpentry work at Veenhuizen. The great majority of the vagrants and the beggars who are segregated in Holland, Belgium and Germany are men who know how to do things with their hands and heads sufficiently well to earn a living, but who are either physically or mentally so under par that they cannot work hard enough, or will not save money enough, to render them permanently self supporting. Hence they gravitate, generally without marked criminal instincts or intentions, into vagabondage or vagrancy, are arrested, and sent or returned to the beggar colony. In these colonies, under a control which they are not adverse to, and with a shifting of responsibility which they are glad of, they produce a moderate amount of product with a moderate amount of pleasure in their work. The directors of the colonies and other representatives of the departments of justice claim that the men are happier in the colonies and are better off by far than they would be outside.

4. The beggar colonies and the compulsory workhouses are in practically no sense reformatories. The importance of this fact cannot be over-emphasized. There seems to be a rather general belief in the United States that farm colonies for tramps and vagrants will be important reformative agencies. European experience is directly contrary to this belief. European sociologists, directors of colonies, prison physicians, or prison commissioners without exception stated emphatically to me that the percentage of reformation (by which ismeant fairly permanent rehabilitation) is exceedingly small from the colonies and the compulsory workhouses. The history of beggar colonies in Belgium and Holland shows that those colonies began with large hopes of reformation and that in the course of years and generations it has become thoroughly manifest that the tramp and vagrant is what he is through a lack of stamina, will, physique or brain, whatever we may call it in the individual instance, without which it is impossible for him to lead a normal and self-supporting existence. Just as we in the United States are coming to see that the feeble-minded criminal and non-criminal are chronically deficient and that feeble-mindedness means an absence of a quality which cannot be replaced or cured, so with vagrancy and its twin sister mendicancy, European conclusions are emphatic that vagrancy and mendicancy, especially in the more advanced stages, must be regarded as manifestations of a social inefficiency and incompetency which require segregation and custodial care, in most instances permanently or for long periods.

If ever a labor colony was organized and conducted with the earnest purpose of reformation of a large proportion of its inmates, the voluntary labor colony at Bielefeld was such a one. Yet after thirty years the parent colony, known throughout the civilized world and quoted more than any other of its kind, bears this testimony through its secretary, given to me on August 6, 1911: â€œThis colony is not successful in reforming many men or in making them permanently self supporting. This colony is successful in furnishing, as do the score of other colonies in Germany, a haven to the â€œbrothers of the highwayâ€ who are stranded and unable to live honestly without our help. This colony is a colony not for the permanent rehabilitation of its inmates, but for the temporary succor of those who seek our help. A large proportion of our brothers come time and again to see us. They think themselves strong enough to leave us, but they come back. If they do not come to us, they go to other colonies from time to time. Many of our colonists are discharged prisoners. Many of them are at times in the voluntary labor colonies, at times in the compulsory workhouses. We have many instances of successful reformation and rehabilitation, but the voluntary labor colony as represented by Bielefeld colony has not solved the problem of the elimination of the tramp.â€

On the other hand, opinion is general that the compulsory labor colony as represented by the beggar colony or compulsory workhouse is of great value as a deterrent and as a custodial institution. None of the countries would, I believe, give up the colony idea, although statements were frequently made that the colony should be smaller, classifications more developed and that the efforts to influence for the better the individual colonists should be more frequent and varied. At Merxplas the secretary general of the Belgian department of justice, the administrative head of the Belgian system, stated to me that Belgium is planning numerous smaller colonies to take the place of Merxplas. The feeling is pronounced in Belgium, Holland and Germany that the most that can be achieved by any present method of dealing with vagrants is the gradual reduction of the number of vagrants, the deterrence of many would-be vagrants, and the segregation of a large number of inevitable vagrants and beggars where they may do the least harm to society at a minimum expense to society.

Although vagrants in the colonies and the workhouses manifest in general a restlessness and a frequent desire for liberty, they are themselves aware that their condition in general is better in the colonies than outside. Indeed, at Merxplas, and particularly at Veenhuizen the American visitor finds a beauty of landscape and a condition of intensive development of garden and meadow, grove and forest, canal and highway that renders both institutions scenically beautiful.

The Prussian compulsory workhouse, Brauweiler, is most attractively located in a renovated cloister, the original buildings of which are 1,000 years old. The spacious rooms, the impressivearched corridors, the striking central courts of the cloister as well as the well preserved cloister church dating back to the tenth century, are all impressive and even awe-inspiring. The workhouse prisoners eat in cloistered passages where 500 years ago the monks had their daily meals. The prisoners worship in a church used by royalty and nobles at the time of the crusades. Even a spreading mulberry tree in one of the court yards, furnishing shade from time to time for some of the inmates, was planted a thousand years ago by the founders of the monastery. In Rummelsburg, adjacent to Berlin, the walled workhouse embraces ample grounds, a spacious garden and attractive buildings. At Veenhuizen in Holland, the heath has been made to blossom like the rose and no finer views of Holland scenery can be found than those in the midst of the 7,000 acres embraced by the colony.

5. Not only do the vagrants live under such surroundings, but in nearly all instances they and their predecessors have thus created their surroundings. Merxplas and Veenhuizen were as the rest of the heath when they were founded. Today the cold north wind, blowing down from the North Sea, is checked before striking the grounds and buildings of Veenhuizen by forests planted by the colonists a generation or more ago. The large dormitories, accommodating 500 men each, in which the Merxplas colonists sleep, were built by colonists most of whom have passed away. The arable farm land of Merxplas, which now supplies the bulk of the vegetable products needed by the colony, was made fertile by gangs of colonists in previous years who rooted out the weeds and heather and utilized the street sweepings of Antwerp in a mixture of top soil. Shops, churches, officersâ€™ quarters, farm buildings, farm implements and wagons have been built by the colonists in these several institutions. Stock has been bred and raised at the colony and to the maximum extent the colonists are rendered self supporting. In addition, industries are maintained to the maximum extent possible with hand and foot power, it being still a literal principle in the colonies and in the workhouses that by the sweat of his brow shall the colonist earn his bread. Oftentimes the rigor of the work impressed me unpleasantly, particularly the weaving by hand and foot power at Merxplas and at Veenhuizen, which was carried on by many aged men who in our country would seem candidates for an idle almshouse life.

In short, one of the important lessons taught by the colonies and the workhouses is that there is in tramps and vagrants (at least in Central Europe) a very large amount of latent productivity, which directed normally and under conditions offering the least resistance can be made financially profitable to the state.

6. European vagrants and beggars seem seldom malicious and vicious. The colonies in Belgium and Holland are not regarded as penal institutions, and in Prussia as only semi-penal. Discipline is comparatively easy, the proportion of infractions of rules varying largely in proportion to the tact, discretion and humanity of the director and of his assistants. Throughout the Merxplas colony the words docility and disobedience kept recurring to my mind. In Merxplas and Veenhuizen the men come and go without the restriction of walls. Escape is easy and the possibilities are often taken advantage of. As noted in the special chapters that follow, little is done to follow up this escape so long as the fugitives show a disposition to re-establish themselves in industrial life. â€œPeace and good willâ€ seem to be mottoes in the colonies. In the Merxplas colony one finds many mottos printed in French and Flemish admonishing the colonists to forsake the vices and cleave to the virtues. Other religious influences, however, are not very noticeable. By comparison, the atmosphere of Bielefeld, a voluntary labor colony of Prussia, seems permeated with devoutness and outward religious observance.

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