"Racket" Costs The City $15,000,000 a Year New York, July 16.
An estimate that beggars in New York make a total income of $15,000,- "[000'a year was made here by city Notices have been posted in buses, trams and tube trains informing the public that public assistance is available to all genuinely needy people in New York and warning them that ihe only way to stamp out begging is to stop giving money to beggars.
The City Commissioner of Welfare, Mr. Willian Hodson, estimates that at least 10,000 "fakes and phonies" are at present soliciting alms in the streets of New York. He said that one blind musician had refused to give up begging unless the city would "guarantee" him a public assistance allowance of $125 a month—the miimum amount he could make by playing a violin in the streets.
According to Mr. Hodson, the beggars of New York are organized in "associations" and "clubs" that employ all the technique of highly developed raekets—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.