There will remain those who cannot be helped by relief or by personal counsel, and who insist upon preying on the public and living the life of professional beggars. They prefer to live without regular employment, and are both in intent and in fact offenders against the law of the land. There is no choice but to prosecute and deal with such offenders as criminals. Through the system of pro bation and suspended sentence, and through timely efforts at reformation at the moment of discharge from prison, something may be accomplished even with these men, and among them, as among original applicants for relief, will be found individuals who are very responsive to personal interest and encouragement.
A deep-rooted instinct that woman is entitled to protection prevents the throwing upon the charity of the community of any large number of girls or young women who are absolutely homeless ; they are not, however, entirely unknown. Runaway girls who become stranded in a strange city; women who are at a distance from their friends, or who have but recently been discharged from a hospital; and more often women who have outlived their years of active service as domestics, and who have drifted away from those upon whom they have any special claim, are found in considerable numbers in the cities among applicants for relief. Unless enfeebled by illness or age, or placed at a disadvantage by vicious habits or offensive traits of character, there is little difficulty in finding work for such applicants when able-bodied and supplied with references as to efficiency and character. Their natural resource is the employment bureau, although careful pre cautions should be taken against fraudulent employment agencies which are sometimes used as a decoy for houses of prostitution.
There is a legitimate but very limited demand for temporary shelters for the few who must be cared for until employment is found, or until there can be commu nication with relatives or friends. There may well be, at least in the larger cities, a public lodging-house, in which under suitable restrictions shelter may be provided for those who are not properly almshouse inmates, and who can readily place themselves, if given shelter for a day or two. The women's lodging-house, if one is established, should be distinct from that conducted for homeless men, and lodgers should be given private rooms and wise matronly oversight. In smaller towns it will be feasible
to care for such applicants in a suitable boarding-house or a private family. Convalescent homes pleasantly situ ated, and sufficient in number or in accommodations to enable patients to remain until they have fully recovered health and strength, are specially needed for wage-earning women whose resources have been exhausted by illness, or who are not in position to be cared for by friends. For superannuated domestics and those who are past service on account of mental or physical infirmities, the usual re sources after their own savings are exhausted, in the absence of relatives able to support them, is the almshouse, and, for exceptional cases, the private homes for the aged.
It is a fair question whether for these more than for any other class there cannot be made a valid argument in favor of state old-age pensions. The normal family contains within itself the element of continuing self support. The growth of children coincides with the decay of wage-earning capacity in the parents ; and even if there are no , children, the strength of the wife may offset de ficient earning capacity in the husband, or, if both fail, there are in the two sets of relatives double chances of natural outside aid. The unmarried man has a much greater range of employment, and for various reasons, some of which at least are not likely to be altered, has, other things being equal, greater money-earning capacity. The woman who is dependent upon her own resources, under existing conditions, finds her living expenses greater, rather than less, than those of the unmarried man. The only considerable offset to the economic disadvantage at which she is placed is the greater natural readiness of brothers, married sisters, or more distant relatives to pro vide a home for her in case of need. For those of whom we are speaking, viz., women who have spent the normal working life in domestic service or in other employment which prevents their taking part in a normal home life, this resource is greatly lessened. They may well be at a long distance from their immediate kindred, and by the very nature of their employment are likely, to some ex tent, to be estranged from those upon whom they might otherwise establish a claim.