132  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED
technical  educational  discipline  most  calculated  to  restore
him  to  the  ranks  of  the  workers.”  For  dealing  with  the
“  sturdy  beggar  ”  and  the  professional  tramps  such  methods
mark  a  distinct  advance  upon  the  present  system  of
mendicancy  tempered  by  the  casual  ward,  and  careful
experiments  upon  these  lines  merit  serious  attention.  In
so  far  as  the  tramp  and  able-bodied  pauper  classes  are
constantly  fed  by  the  off-scourings  of  the  lower-skilled
labour  market  all  attempts  to  deal  with  them  touch  the
subject  of  “the  unemployed,”  but  since  these  people  can
hardly  be  ranked  among  the  occupied  classes,  their  treatment ­
  must  be  regarded  more  as  a  palliative  of  a  special
symptom  of  the  disease  than  as  a  direct  and  effective
treatment  of  the  disease  itself.  Though  it  is  plainly
desirable  that  society  should  be  relieved  as  far  as  possible
from  the  contamination  of  a  parasitic  tramp  population,
public  work  given  upon  penal  terms  to  such  people  cannot
be  looked  upon  as  a  direct  or  important  contribution  to
the  solution  of  the  unemployed  problem,  so  long  as
nothing  is  done  to  obviate  those  defects  of  low-skilled
employment  which  help  to  produce  the  tramp  and  the
sturdy  rogue.
§  6.  Farm  Colonies  for  Paupers.
If  such  colonies  are  regarded  as  a  possible  development ­
  of  a  more  humanised  and  rational  penal  code,  administered ­
  by  the  Home  Office  as  part  of  our  Reformatory
System,  other  colonies  not  dissimilar  in  administration
and  in  methods  might  grow  from  a  specialisation  of  the
Poor  Law  work.  Some  agricultural  labour,  though  not
of  a  very  remunerative  sort,  is  carried  on  by  Boards  of
Guardians  in  gardens  and  small  farms  for  the  supply  of