PUTTING IDLERS TO WORK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 171, 17 July 1918, Page 2

PUTTING IDLERS TO WORK.

On the last dav for approving bills passed at this year's legislative session (says the New York Journal of Commerce) Governor Whitman signed the measure requiring i all able-bodied men from 18 to 50 years of age to be "habitually and' regularly engaged •in some lawful, useful,_jvnd recognised business, profession, occupation, _ Wade. o r employment until the termination of the war." This is intenled, not merely to get the availafole labour power of the State into some kind of useful service, which is eminently desirable, but to put an end to idling, awaytime in the streets, saloons, hotels, poolrooms, and other places of resort, mostly worse than useless. The police are already working up a list of the offenders to be taken- in hand by the law and set to work. TTie law will not give them employment, but it may impose a fine of 100 dollars on any of them, or send them to prison for three months, or inflict both penalties, if they do not get it for themselves. It does not make any difference" how much income the idler,.or- slacker may 'have for his own support and that of those who : are dependent upon him, without doing anything. He must go to work at something, and paying a single fine will presumably not set him free to go Iback to indolence. Laws of this character have been adopted in some other .States, including new Jersey and Maryland, and the object of the new statute may be in patt to prevent. New York from becoming a safety/ resort for more loafers than it' would otherwise be afflicted with. The police of the. city- and sheriffs of the boroughs are -getting busy making up lists of the vagrants and slackers sulbject to, the new law. We suspect that a <jood deal of discrimination .will have to be exercised', and not much direct compulsion applied, away from "resorts" more or less objectionable in- themselves; but examples may be made and a wholesome influence exerted. The chief effect may be moral.