A. Vagrancy and Mendicity.
In examining the etiology of these contraventions, we perceive that different causes lead to them. We shall treat them successively and endeavor to find their relation to the economic life.
First. As a first cause of vagrancy and mendicity is the fact that under capitalism there are always workmen who cannot sell their labor. The number of these persons increases greatly at the time of a crisis. When the men out of work have no resource in their family and no longer receive aid from their union, they are obliged to go from place to place looking for employment, and if they do not succeed in finding it must have recourse to begging in order not to die of hunger. Statistics furnish the proof that the army of vagrants and mendicants [[547]]is in fact made up in part of the unemployed who, though they wish to, cannot find work.
In the first place, vagrancy and mendicity increase in winter (as in general all economic criminality does), when forced unemployment is at its height, and needs are most pressing, while they diminish in summer. The following figures with reference to some of the German states show these facts.
Grand-Duchy of Baden, 1884–1891.[342]
| Months. | Number Convicted of Vagrancy and Mendicity. | Number Convicted per Diem, the Minimum = 100. |
| January | 7,232 | 364 |
| February | 6,315 | 336 |
| March | 4,816 | 235 |
| April | 2,945 | 148 |
| May | 2,743 | 133 |
| June | 2,475 | 124 |
| July | 2,540 | 124 |
| August | 2,410 | 118 |
| September | 1,989 | 100 |
| October | 2,672 | 130 |
| November | 3,857 | 195 |
| December | 5,310 | 259 |
Hesse, 1899–1900.[343]
| Months. | Number Convicted of Vagrancy and Mendicity. | |
| Absolute Number. | Daily Average. | |
| December–February | 479 | 5.32 |
| March–May | 334 | 3.63 |
| June–August | 259 | 2.82 |
| September–November | 531 | 3.64 |
[[548]]
The following figures confirm those that have preceded.