THE LATEST IN COMBINES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 65, 9 November 1912, Page 5

THE LATEST IN COMBINES.

A BEGGARS’ TRUST. Even in this country of big combines it is startling to discover the evidence of a “Beggars’ Trust” (says a New York cablegram dated 19th September). An astounding story of its control of infirm people a.pd of its vast, operations has been told by a large number of its victims, who have been arrested on the public streets for begging- '

During the past few months there has been an enormous increase in the number of blind and crippled bqgga-rs on the streets of the principal cities of the east and r middle-west. Their number increased so largely in this city that the police received orders to arrest all persons who were found begging. Many have been taken into custody, and from their confessions it has been discovered that a trust actually controls these beggars, and trades on their infirmities. From statements made by several of the prisoners, it has been ascertained that the men who ran the trust obtained inmates from public institutions by pronrsing them comfortable homos and a share in the proceeds. The greed of the trust overreached its discretion. 'After securing the crippled, the palsied, and the blind, and putting them on the streets, the trust appropriated all tho’-r receipts, and by a thorough system of checking what the beggars took in alms from the compassionate, kept their wretched assistants on the barest living basis. It was estimated that each beggar was worth to the trust 5s a day, at least, in profit. The trust has wide ramifications, and it is believed that thousands of beggars turn their dailyreceipts into its coffers. The officers of the Bureau of Charities have taken the matter up, and are seeking by every means in their power to learn the names of the trust’s managers, with a view to their prosecution.