The Vagrancy Problem. / The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses

The author examines the social problem of vagrancy and argues that England’s permissive approach is inadequate, advocating disciplined remedies drawn from continental practice. He describes urban loafers, detention colonies and labour houses, Belgian beggars’ depots, German labour houses and tramp prisons, a Berlin municipal labour house, Swiss treatment, Poor Law applications, labour depots and hostels, and recent commission recommendations. The work combines comparative institutional description, practical proposals for legislation and administration, and appendices of laws and forms to support measures intended to reduce habitual idleness through organised detention, work registration, and regulated labour accommodation.