In the reign of Elizabeth the highways were filled with the throngs of the unemployed poor, who were made to "move on", and were sometimes brutally whipped, sometimes summarily hanged, as "sturdy vagrants" or "incorrigible vagabonds".

In France just previous to the revolution, the punishment of being poor and out of work was, for the first offence, a term of years in the galleys, for the second offence, the galleys for life.

In this country, the monopoly of labor-saving machinery and its devotion to selfish instead of social use, have rendered more and more human beings superfluous, until we have a standing army of the unemployed numbering even in the most prosperous times not less than one million able bodied men; yet until recently it was the prevailing notion, as it is yet the notion of all but the people themselves, that whosoever is able bodied and willing to work can always find work to do, and section 571 of the general statutes of 1889 is a disgraceful reminder how savage even in Kansas has been in our treatment of the most unhappy of our human brothers. [Does this sound familiar?]

The man out of work and penniless, is by this legislation, classed with "confidence men." Under this statute and city ordinances of similar import, thousands of men guilty of no crime but poverty, intent upon no crime but seeking employment, have languished in the city prisons of Kansas or performed unrequited toil on "rock piles" as municipal slaves, because ignorance of economic conditions has made us cruel. [Does this sound familiar?]

The victims have been the poor and humble for whom police courts are the courts of last resort. They cannot give bond and appeal. They have been unheeded and uncared for by the busy world which wastes no time visiting prisoners in jail. They have been too poor to litigate with their oppressors, and thus no voice from this underworld of human woe has ever reached the ear of the appelate court, because it was nobody's business to be his brother's keeper.

But those who sit in the seats of power are bound by the highest obligation to especially regard the cause of the oppressed and helpless poor. The first duty of the government is to the weak. Power becomes fiendish if it be not the protector and sure reliance of the friendless to whose complaints all other ears are dulled. It is my duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed, and among those laws is the constitutional provision that no instrumentality of the state "shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." And who needs to be told that equal protection of the law does not prevail where this inhuman vagrancy law is enforced? It separates men into two distinct classes, differentiated as those who are penniless and those who are not, and declares the former criminals. To be found in a city "without some visible means of support or some legitimate business", is the involuntary condition of some millions at this moment, and we proceed to punish them for being victims of conditions which we, as a people, have forced upon them. [Does this sound familiar?]

I have noticed in police court reports that "sleeping in a box car" is among the varieties of this heinous crime of being poor. Some police judges have usurped a sovereign power not permitted by highest functionaries of the states or of the nation, and victims of the industrial conditions have been peremptorily "ordered to leave town."

The right to go freely from place to place in search of employment, or even in obedience to a mere whim, is part of that personal liberty guaranteed by the constitution to every human being on American soil. If voluntary idleness is not forbidden; if a Diogenes preferred poverty; if a Columbus chose hunger and the discovery of a new race, rather than seek personal comfort by engaging in "some legitimate business", I am aware of no power in the legislature or in city councils to deny him the right to seek happiness in his own way, so long as he harms no other, rich or poor; but let simple poverty cease to be a crime.

In some cities it is provided by ordinance that if police court fines are not paid or secured the culprit shall be compelled to work out the amount as a municipal slave; and "rock piles" and "bull pens" are provided for the enforcement of these ordinances. And so it appears that this slavery is not imposed as a punishment but solely as a means of collecting a debt.

Such city ordinances are in flagrant violation of constitutional prohibition. The "rock pile" and the "bull pen" have only been used in degrading the friendless and poor, and are relicts of a departed auction-block era which have not ceased to disgrace the cities of Kansas.

And let the dawn of Christmas day find the "rock pile" and the "bull pen" and the crime of being homeless and poor, obsolete in all the cities of Kansas governed by the Metropolitan Police Act.

It is confidently expected that their own regard for constitutional liberty and their human impulses will induce police commissioners to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of the foregoing suggestions.

L.D. Lewelling, Governor.

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