HOOLIGANISM.

Southland Times, Issue 14852, 23 January 1901, Page 2

HOOLIGANISM.

Some time ago we devoted an article in this place to Hooliganism. We explained the meaning of the word and the nature of the danger which threatened London. The “ Hooligan” is the’product of a vast city in which a large population lives in poverty. He does not know what home, with its associations of protection, comfort, happiness and love, means. His life is passed upon the streets, and from his infancy he is dependent upon his wits for his subsistence The only law he obeys is set by himself, and is no law at all. His occupation is to make for himself a livelihood, and he uses the only method in which he is skilled—robbery and theft. “In

various parts of London,” writes one who has had experience, “there are very large numbers of boys and girls, and young men and women, growing up in wild lawlessness, violent rather than predatory, sometimes carrying arms, ready to fight one another when they have, no victims, at hand, organised in bands sometimes, and at other times collected in casual groups. These ■ are the 1 Hooligans,’ and the spirit which moves them and the character of their actions and of their,conduct is ‘ Hooliganism. ” The evil has not sprung into existence at a leap, nor is it only within the past twelve months that it has attained formidable dimensions. “ Hooliganism ” is an old foe of those who work among the poor and the wretched of London. But it is only recently that public alarm has been excited to a high pitch. The “ Hooligan’s ” power is becoming more confirmed, and it is feared that if a blow is not struck at the roots of the disease speedily and effectively the “ Hooligan ” may become master of the situation. On a recent Saturday in London the public were startled by the news of three murders, one of which was directly attributable to “ Hooliganism,” and the others were of similar character. For months past the columns of the London press in which police and criminal information is recorded have reflected, the extent and the activity of “Hooliganism.” The existence of so great a peril to public safety and good order has caused the greatest anxiety in London, and an earnest effort is being made to discover the best way of withstanding it. It is fully recognised that off-hand treatment will be ineffective. It is not enough that the “ Hooligan ” already busy in the field of wrongdoing should be reclaimed: the avenues by which thousands of new recruits annually reach that field must bo stopped. This means that the social condition which produces the “ Hooligan ” must be removed. London has been face to face with the problem of her indigent masses for years and has made, and is making, strenuous efforts to ameliorate their lot. Both by open-handed private philanthrophy and enlightened official administration an amount of work is done among the poor of London each year which can hardly be comprehended except by those who are familiar with London. But the growth of “ Hooliganism” demands instant organisation on the part of all philanthropic agencies, and a combined attack by them upon the strongholds of poverty in which vice and crime are propagated and let loose upon the world. The experts who are applying their knowledge and experience to the “ Hooligan ” problem are naturally directing their labours primarily against this root source of the great social difficulty which has thrust itself upon them, and at the same time they will use every means that skill and thought can suggest to redeem even the confirmed “Hooligan” from his evil courses. The experts alluded to are those men and women who for years past have studied this problem, the heads of clubs and reading rooms, gymnasiums and athletic societies, which have been established in the heart of the poor districts of London to attract the embryo “Hooligarf” into the paths of honesty and industry. These practised administrators of public money subscribed for redemptive and preventive work recently met in London and discussed “ Hooliganism ” from every point of view. The result of three conferences held was the setting up of a committee constituted as follows :— Chairman, Mr W. H. Dickinson (chairman, L.C.C.); the Bishops of Rochester, Stepney, St. Albans, Islington, Southwark, and Colchester ; the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Henry Burdett, K. 0.8., a member of the London School Board, Mr E. M. S. Pilkington, Mr Charles Booth, Sir Samuel Hoare, Mr James Knowles, Mr R. A. Bennett; representatives of Oxford-house, Toyn-bee-hall, Mansfield-house, Newmanhouse, Passmore Edwards Settlement, London Playing Fields Committee, Cambridge-house, Women’s University Settlement, Eton Mission; Mr J. S. Underhill, Federation of Working Boys’ Clubs ; Major W. Elliott, Lads’ Drill Association, with power to add to their number. Further representatives of religious bodies and others who are engaged in carrying on work of this kind will be invited to join. At the conferences certain definite principles by which the work should be guided were generally approved. The committee, it is believed, will formulate an extensive scheme upon these principles and submit it to the people with an appeal for encouragement and support. The assistance required will be of two kinds—money and men. Experience has proved that it is not difficult to obtain as much money as is needed. The people of Great Britain, when once they have been convinced that the case submitted to them is a deserving one, are liberal and generous in a high degree, and it is anticipated that all the money that is asked for to begin the campaign against “ Hooliganism” will be subscribed promptly and cheerfully. Money, however, is not of great benefit unless there is a complete organisation through which to spend it, and it will be necessary to obtain the services of a large number of men and women to work in. the poor divisions of London and to manage the institutions that will be founded. Voluntary, gratuitous, labour is invariably the most valuable in such a cause, and the committee intend to use every endeavour to enlist the sympathy of men and women ' who are most highly qualified to lead the street Arab and the corner loafer into new and wholesome walks of life. The committee will appeal to University and public-school men who are athletic, versatile, and educated, and who would offer both an example and a guide to the “ Hooligan.” It is a generally received opinion that the “ Hooligan ” has the makings of a man in him, he presents an instance of good stuff perverted, and if good influences can be brought to bear upon him when he is plastic and amenable to teaching he will be rescued for society. But while the scheme to be determined upon will have this preventive work for its chief purpose, there must be another side to the process of reclamation—a penal side. The law must be enforced in all its vigour against the “ Hooligan ” who is caught at his ruffianly practices, and the committee may be exj ected to recommend that the Magistrates should be much more severe in inflicting punishment upon the convicted “Hooligan.” One speaker at the conferences which have been mentioned said : “Some people say, ‘love the Hooligan’; others say, ‘lick him I say, ‘do both.’ ” This, probably,

may be accepted as a forecast, in homely language, of the scheme which the committee will formulate. The “ Hooligan ” must be converted into a good citizen of the Empire not only by the attractions of love but also by the fear of punishment. The problem, as we have said before, is one with which the people of the colonies may profitably concern themselves, and we shall continue to record the progress which is macle in the efforts of the London people to solve it. In the meantime it is worth while to have noted how the beginning has been made, and the issue will be watched for with very great interest.