Many other institutions and agencies regularly or sporadically extend assistance to the homeless man. Yet, in perhaps no other field of social work is there more overlapping and duplication of effort, or so low standards of service. For example, the missions and some of the churches, working independently of one another, boast that they feed and clothe the needy, but they make little or no effort to distinguish between those who do and those who do not deserve assistance. Consequently, the missions lay themselves open to exploitation by the homeless man. A constructive program for rehabilitation demands the co-ordination of the efforts of all agencies now engaged in serving his needs.
THE HOMELESS MAN AND RELIGION
The missions, and for that matter, the welfare agencies are unpopular with the habitués of Hobohemia. The hobo, in his songs and in conversation, shows unmistakably his aversion to all efforts to remake his character or to reshape his destiny. This feeling of antipathy is naturally strongest with the adherents of the I.W.W. who come in competition and conflict with the mission worker.
With full recognition of the cynical reaction of the average hobo to the mission, it cannot be denied that thousands of homeless men are converted every winter, and that a certain proportion of these, how large no one knows, lead permanently changed lives. The mission touches the inner life of these men in a way that no social agency or organization has ever done, or perhaps can do.
Even the homeless man has aspirations above the satisfaction of his physical wants; he desires to live in a larger, more complete sense. The I.W.W., with its radical program of changing “things as they are,” appeals to the restless and rebellious spirit of youth. But the broken man, or the old man who has given up hope, finds comfort and peace in adapting himself to “things as they are.” Religion to him is just this change of attitude, “making oneself right with God.” While the young man is confident that he can right what is wrong in this world, the old man looks to the next world to compensate for the inequalities and injustice of present existence.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] In the section on “Types of Missions” and “Permanent, Periodic, and Temporary Converts,” the writer is indebted to material furnished by Mr. L. Guy Brown from an unpublished study of “Missions in Chicago.”
[68] One mission of this type on West Madison Street records that during the year ending September, 1921, 56,718 homeless men visited the mission. During this time 4,016 men knelt at the altar (were converted). Nearly 29,000 meals were served to hungry and unemployed men, while 4,145 tickets were issued which entitled the bearer to sleep at a flophouse or cheap rooming-house.
[69] The officials of the League estimate that there were 7,000 homeless men among the Negroes in the winter of 1921-22.
[70] See pp. 27-28.