living without work." Not only is it to be inferred from this that
there is a large class in society which lives without work, for Mr.
O'Neil's testimony further shows that this class is forced to live
without work.

He says: "I have been astonished at the multitude of those who have
unfortunately engaged in occupations which practically force them to
become loafers for at least a third of the year. And it is from
this class that the tramps are largely recruited. I recall a
certain winter when it seemed to me that a large portion of the
inhabitants of Chicago belonged to this army of unfortunates. I was
stationed at a police station not far from where an ice harvest was
ready for the cutters. The ice company advertised for helpers, and
the very night this call appeared in the newspapers our station was
packed with homeless men, who asked shelter in order to be at hand
for the morning's work. Every foot of floor space was given over to
these lodgers and scores were still unaccommodated."

And again: "And it must be confessed that the man who is willing to
do honest labor for food and shelter is a rare specimen in this vast
army of shabby and tattered wanderers who seek the warmth of the
city with the coming of the first snow." Taking into consideration
the crowd of honest laborers that swamped Mr. O'Neil's station-house
on the way to the ice-cutting, it is patent, if all tramps were
looking for honest labor instead of a small minority, that the
honest laborers would have a far harder task finding something
honest to do for food and shelter. If the opinion of the honest
laborers who swamped Mr. O'Neil's station-house were asked, one
could rest confident that each and every man would express a
preference for fewer honest laborers on the morrow when he asked the