Hoboes, homeless and such during WW2?

[p51]

I'm on the downhill side of my model railroad layout build, and the layout takes place in 1943. I was given a hobo figure and I decided to just place it on the front porch of a log cabin so it looks like a hillbilly farmer, instead.
But it got me wondering, how common were hobos, homeless and people previously called, "the dregs" back during the WW2 years? Sure, if a man could be drafted, he'd be breaking the law by now going, but what about the crazies, boozers and such that weren't medically acceptable for service? How common were people like that to not contribute at all in the days of rationing? Or was it easier to get along for that reason, in that timeframe?
In all my years of reading about the WW2 era, I can't recall seeing what happened to folks like that during WW2?

 

[filfoster]

I'm a student of hobos and hobo culture, so this is a good thread to follow. Sorry I can't offer anything on your precise point.
A scholar, last name 'Conover' -can't recall the first name and too lazy to Google- wrote a book "Rolling Nowhere" on hobo-ing in the 1980's and it hadn't changed too much from the '30's and '40's. He tried it for a year and gladly gave it up after that time, all done as a post graduate study project.
A good book is 'Face the Winter Naked' and there is also a pretty good movie about hoboes, besides 'Emperor of the North' called 'Wild Boys of the Road', made in the '30's. I have it on DVD but haven't watched it.


I hope you get some good posts.

Isn't it likely their lives were pretty much unaffected by the war, except that there were more trains to hop and less sugar in the handouts?

 

[p51]

I have read a lot about hobos in the teens to thirties, but I don't recall seeing much about them during WW2. Part of the glossing over the history books often give for that era, I guess, where we're expected to think every man/woman/child rolled up their sleeves and gave their all from the winter of '41 to the fall of '45.
But I think it's a given that whatever happened with them in the height of the depression would not be the same for the war years. I utterly refuse to accept that men riding trains back and forth weren't stopped and checked for their draft cards or designations. And with all those war industry jobs opening, wouldn't there be a huge push to get those men into the factories if they weren't fit to serve?
I remember, years ago, reading about laws that were attempted to be passed during the war in some places to make it illegal for people not to have jobs if they were capable of doing so (even if they had the means to not have to work). I've never read how successful those efforts were, though. In such a climate, I can't possibly imagine hobos wouldn't have been rousted for those reasons during the war...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The War Labor Board made every effort to ensure that every able-bodied worker was working -- there were federal laws locking individual workers with war-essential jobs into those jobs for the duration, and with the draft age rising steadily to meet the need for replacement troops, any able-bodied man between 18 to 45 who didn't have a war job was likely to be taken. Draft registration was required for all men up to age 65 -- so even crusty old coots who might in earlier years been left alone to ride the rails in peace were liable to be rousted and required to show their draft cards and explain their status.

So short answer -- there were vagrants, but they were usually either mentally or physically disabled in some way, were hardened criminals, were illiterate, or otherwise unfit for work or service. All a man had to do to get a 4-F was convince an Army doctor he was a drug addict, or mentally deranged in some way, and there were more than a few people who figured out how to accomplish this. Or they were out and out draft evaders -- of which there were a great many during the 1940s, and they were on the run to make sure the draft board didn't track them down.

 

[filfoster]

My guess still is that by the nature of many hobos, men without a permanent address, accustomed and skilled at avoiding authority, were folks who would succeed in large measure avoiding any military service. I'd suppose many were mentally or physically disabled, by alcohol or otherwise, but able to get around. They would fall into the last category of Ms. Maine's post of 'draft evaders'.
Hobos riding the rails because no work was to be had -many of the '30's era folks-would welcome free clothes, three hots and cot, wouldn't they, even at the cost of 'freedom'?

Mr. Conover's book describes men (a few but not many, women, and yes, many seem to have been homosexual) who most decidedly were not seeking any sort of stable, materialistic situation, beyond the next meal and a warm place to sleep. And, oh yes, alcohol. Mr. Conover quickly learned that with a few exceptions, there was not much honor among the thieves and that 'gentlemen' of the road was a misnomer.

 

[filfoster]

A personal anecdote: Between my junior and senior years in college (Hanover College, class of '75), I worked in Madison, Indiana for a wonderful man named Harold Annes, who was a retired union carpenter. He had ridden the rails in the Depression to find work. He was a fine carpenter and could measure and cut like a laser. He had settled down, married and had a fine country farm but recalled without fondness his time spent hopping freights.

He also amused us by claiming the hammers we were using for roofing were heavier than most union contracts would allow.

 

[Stanley Doble]

It is hard to remember today, how patriotic everyone was and how much effort they put into supporting the war effort including the home front.

During the war any able bodied man would be in the service or working in a war industry. Even those who were not in good health tried to help as much as they could. Given the manpower shortage, even someone who was not strong enough for the military or factory work, could get a job in a store or restaurant or possibly as a night watchman and free up someone else to serve.

Most of the hoboes and vagrants from the depression were not unemployed by choice. They took jobs when they could find them. Most had found work before the war started and they certainly had opportunities after. There may have been a few holdouts but they would have been very, very unpopular even among their old friends.

Trains were running day and night and were so packed I doubt a hobo could have found a place on one. Car traffic nearly non existent with gas rationing and the tire shortage. Motorists would pick up hitchhikers but nobody was going more than a few miles.

So, few if any hoboes were on the roads and they would NOT have been welcome anywhere unless they were willing to work. If they were willing to work they could have lots of jobs to choose from.

 

[MikeKardec]

It is hard to remember today, how patriotic everyone was and how much effort they put into supporting the war effort including the home front.

During the war any able bodied man would be in the service or working in a war industry. Even those who were not in good health tried to help as much as they could. Given the manpower shortage, even someone who was not strong enough for the military or factory work, could get a job in a store or restaurant or possibly as a night watchman and free up someone else to serve.

Most of the hoboes and vagrants from the depression were not unemployed by choice. They took jobs when they could find them. Most had found work before the war started and they certainly had opportunities after. There may have been a few holdouts but they would have been very, very unpopular even among their old friends.

Trains were running day and night and were so packed I doubt a hobo could have found a place on one. Car traffic nearly non existent with gas rationing and the tire shortage. Motorists would pick up hitchhikers but nobody was going more than a few miles.

So, few if any hoboes were on the roads and they would NOT have been welcome anywhere unless they were willing to work. If they were willing to work they could have lots of jobs to chose from.

I agree, there was likely a sort of domino effect where men entering military service left open jobs that were taken by the previously chronically unemployed, that is not to say that the chronically unemployed were all that good at their jobs but many didn't need to be. We know that as younger more easily educated women moved into more technical fields the jobs that had been done by kids of both sexes were populated by older people ... I'm guessing that not all of them had been stable members of their communities all that long. This was a good question and I'd follow it up with wondering what their lives were like after the war?

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

 

[SurfGent]

Let's get some pics in this thread

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

View attachment 53568

That's a pretty spiffy-looking bunch of hoboes. Suits and neckties - is that hobo attire?

 

[scotrace]

I think most, if not all, of those images depict men during the 30s, when the Great Depression saw a greater population of vagrants who would otherwise be working. By the war years, as Lizzie pointed out very well, anyone who was able and not on the lam would be placed in a working position in some way.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "Hobo News," however, did continue publication all thru the war, and as you can see, "hobo women" were doing their bit for national defense.

During a strike by New York newsstand operators in 1941, the only papers which dealers would sell were PM, the Brooklyn Eagle, the Daily Worker -- and the Hobo News. "A Little Fun To Match The Sorrow."

 

[filfoster]

I'd like to think the 'bo's rolled up their sleeves, wiped their unwashed brows, and took on their wartime responsibilities, but I doubt it.
It's my hunch (I have no proof!) the Venn diagram of vagrants and hobos included then and now, a substantial number of fellows who would not have changed their lifestyles for any reasons of patriotism.
Re the trains, they pretty much stuck to freights only. There's little chance they'd get on or avoid being tossed off a passenger consist.
Let's see if there's any demographic/sociological info on this.