d the
nights they spend, and how, driven in by physical exhaustion, they go to
the casual ward for a "rest up." Nor is the casual ward a soft snap. To
pick four pounds of oakum, break twelve hundredweight of stones, or
perform the most revolting tasks, in return for the miserable food and
shelter they receive, is an unqualified extravagance on the part of the
men who are guilty of it. On the part of the authorities it is sheer
robbery. They give the men far less for their labour than do the
capitalistic employers. The wage for the same amount of labour,
performed for a private employer, would buy them better beds, better
food, more good cheer, and, above all, greater freedom.

As I say, it is an extravagance for a man to patronise a casual ward. And
that they know it themselves is shown by the way these men shun it till
driven in by physical exhaustion. Then why do they do it? Not because
they are discouraged workers. The very opposite is true; they are
discouraged vagabonds. In the United States the tramp is almost
invariably a discouraged worker. He finds tramping a softer mode of life
than working. But this is not true in England. Here the powers that be
do their utmost to discourage the tramp and vagabond, and he is, in all
truth, a mightily discouraged creature. He knows that two shillings a
day, which is only fifty cents, will buy him three fair meals, a bed at
night, and leave him a couple of pennies for pocket money. He would
rather work for those two shillings than for the charity of the casual
ward; for he knows that he would not have to work so hard, and that he
would not be so abominably treated. He does not do so, however, because
there are more men to do work than there is work for men to do.

When there are more men than there is work to be done, a sifting-out
process must obtain. In every branch of industry the less efficient are
crowded out. Being crowded out because of inefficiency, they cannot go
up, but must descend, and continue to descend, until they reach their
proper level, a place in the industrial fabric where they are efficient.
It follows, therefore, and it is inexorable, that the least efficient
must descend to the very bottom, which is the shambles wherein they
perish miserably.

A glance at the confirmed inefficients at the bottom demonstrates that
they are, as a rule, mental, physical, and moral wrecks. The exceptions
to the rule are the late arrivals, who are merely