274 LAND AND LABOR. 



whatever the difficulties may be, they must be over- 

 come. The existence of the great mass of unskilled 

 labor that we now have, is the inevitable result of the 

 operations of society, under present developments, and 

 society can not escape the consequences. Therefore, 

 the quicker the difficulty is met, and unskilled labor 

 is converted into that which is skilled, the better it 

 will be for all. 



Another difficulty will be found in the fact that for 

 the last eighteen years we have been educating a large 

 body of tramps we may safely say, armies of them 

 who have no habits of industry nor love for work. 

 Vagabondage has so long been their habit that they 

 have learned to love it. Their condition must be 

 changed, cost what it may. It is another of the pen- 

 alties that society must pay for its transgressions. 

 The tramp, also, is an inevitable growth out of pres- 

 ent conditions. But the difficulty will not prove so 

 great as many will seek to make it appear. The 

 shortened hours of labor under the law, and the ad- 

 vance in wages that is sure to follow, will have a 

 powerful influence on the tramp, however fixed his 

 habits. The task of educating that class to habits 

 of industry, under the new conditions, will not be as 

 great as it now is to control and provide for them 

 under the present state of things. The wholesome 

 application of a stringent vagrant law would also 

 operate beneficially in the cases of the otherwise in- 

 corrigible. They would not be long in learning that 

 six hours of free labor, each day, will be far easier 

 than ten hours of enforced toil. 



The hope of constant employment, with shortened 



