JAMES EADS HOW
“HOBO COLLEGE”
The most important of the auxiliary institutions of the I.B.W.A. is the “Hobo College.” This unique institution is How’s idea. How, as a strong believer in progress through education, desires to bring to the hobo worker the rudiments of the natural and social sciences. The “Hobo College” affords the migrant an opportunity to discuss topics of practical and vital interest to him, and to attend lectures by professors, preachers, and free-lance intellectuals.
The “Hobo College” in Chicago[66] has received considerable newspaper publicity. Like all the hobo colleges, the Chicago branch only operates in winter. During the summer most of the “students” are out of town at work on different migratory occupations.
HOLDING COMMITTEE
How’s income, which he inherited, is at the disposal of the hobos, but it is “fed out” by degrees, according to the terms of the will. As the money comes into How’s hands it is distributed and apportioned by the Holding Committee, which is composed of a member of the How family, a member of the “Hobo College,” a member of the Junior League (a non-functioning organization for boy tramps), and the acting secretary and all previous secretaries of the I.B.W.A. Most of this money goes to the support of the various organizations of the I.B.W.A., including the Hobo News.
The Holding Committee also may contribute at times to the purchase of halls and other property, to transport delegates to and from conventions, or rather to pay their fare back after they have “beaten their way” to the meeting, and to promote propaganda. A plan is now on foot to maintain a lobby at Washington to support legislation in behalf of the hobo. One proposal is a federal labor exchange. The Holding Committee may and often does contribute to other causes.
CO-OPERATIVE “FLOPS”
One of How’s ambitions is to establish hobo stopping places in all the principal cities of the country. Already he has opened “Hotels de Bum” in more than twenty cities. Some of them are owned by the I.B.W.A., but most of them only rented for the winter months. The “hotel” in Cincinnati is typical. It is a two-story frame building, located in the Hobohemian section of the city. The second floor, designed for “flopping,” is equipped with about forty cots. The first floor is divided into a loafing- or reading-room and a kitchen. In the kitchen there are a gas range and enough pots and kettles to “boil up” clothes or cook a “mulligan.” At the rear of the building is a small wood yard where ties and other wood are cut for the heater. The management of these hotels is left to the men who select a house committee from their number. The committee looks after the building and insists that the men keep the place clean. A small tax is imposed now and then to meet current expenses and to pay one man a small fee for looking after the accounts. The ordinary “mission stiff” cannot survive long in an I.B.W.A. hotel. He usually leaves when asked to contribute his share toward the upkeep. But a man without money is welcome, if he does his part. Some of these hotels pay their way. Most of them, however, never meet expenses, but the deficit generally is made good by How.