SUNDERLAND DAILY ECHO

•   •   ◊   •   •

POVERTY AT WASHINGTON
Serious State of Affairs

At a meeting of the Chester-le-Street Board of Guardians yesterday serious complaints were made of the poverty in the Washington and Usworth districts owing to the short time worked at the local collieries.

Mr T. Craggs mentioned the case of a young man with a wife and three children, who had to beg a loaf of bread, which he shared with his family, before he was able to go to work one day, and returned from work to the remains of the loaf. He stated that if the School Feeding Act were not in operation by Monday not a child in the area would attend school on that day. Over 2,000 men had gone into the army from the district, which was one of the most patriotic in the country, but it would be turned into something very different if steps were not taken immediately.

Mr J. R. Mole, the vice-chairman, said the School feeding Act would have to be put into operation in other districts owing to poverty. The matter would have to be taken in hand very drastically. The Goverment had introduced into the district 6,000 foreigners, to whom big wages were being paid. He knew of a man who received £4 18s for eight shifts in making beds and cleaning bedrooms, and Englishmen would not starve and see that going on.

Mr McGuire said he had four children himself, and he found it very hard to keep them under the present conditions.

Mr J. W. Renwick said the arrangements for the allocation of orders and the transfer of men were bad, and should be gone into, so that all collieries would get a share of the work.

A deputation was appointed to wait upon the authorities immediately, and the question of opening communal kitchens is to be considered by the Rural District Council.

SHIELDS DAILY NEWS

•   •   ◊   •   •

POVERTY AMONG DURHAM MINERS
Serious Statements at a Guardian Meeting

At a meeting of the Chester-le-Street Board of Guardians, yesterday, serious complaints were made of the poverty in the Washington and Usworth districts owing to the short time worked at the local collieries.

Mr T. Craggs mentioned the case of a young man with a wife and three children, who had to beg a loaf of bread, which he shared with his family, before he was able to go to work one day, and returned from work to the remains of the loaf. He stated that if the School Feeding Act were not in operation by Monday not a child in the area would attend school on that day. Over 2,000 men had gone into the army from the district, which was one of the most patriotic in the country, but it would be turned into something very different if steps were not taken immediately.

Mr J. R. Mole, the vice-chairman, said the Government had brought into the district 6,000 foreigners, one of whom was recently paid £4 18s for 8 days work as a bedmaker and bedroom cleaner, while in another case, a woman stole £20 from one of these men. Englishmen, knowing these facts, would not starve, nor allow their children to starve. The demand for coal all over the country could not be met, and yet miners were starving.

Mr J. W. Renwick said the orders were not allocated to the various collieries as they should be, nor idle men transferred to where there was work for them.

A deputation was appointed to wait on those responsible for the working of the relief agencies.

NEWCASTLE DAILY JOURNAL

•   •   ◊   •   •

CHILDREN KEPT FROM SCHOOL
Drastic Step Taken by Usworth and
Washington Miners

At a meeting of Washington and Usworth miners, numbering 1,600, held yesterday in the Alexandra Theatre, New Washington, Councillor Thomas Kirtley, presiding, it was unanimously decided that the children, attending the nine schools in the district should not present themselves at the schools today, owing to the County Educational Committee not putting into force the Feeding of Necessitous Children Food Act.

It was asserted at the meeting by Councillor Hardy that for some weeks the authorities had been asked to feed the children owing to the collieries of Usworth, the two Washingtons, and North Biddick working very short time. The children, in consequence, were going to school hungry and with no footwear. The miners have taken this drastic step to insist on the needs of the children being supplied as regards the Act, and as soon as the Act is put into operation the scholars will resume attendance.

It was stated at the meeting that Sir Richard Redmayne, the Chief Inspector of Mines, acting on instructions from the Coal Controller, is to visit the North with a view to investigating the reason of the short time working of many of the Durham collieries.

SUNDERLAND DAILY ECHO

•   •   ◊   •   •

FEEDING OF CHILDREN
School Strike at Washington
 

At a meeting held in the Alexandra Theatre, New Washington, yesterday, and attended by over 1,600 miners employed in the Usworth and Washington district, it was decided to declare a school strike as a protest against the action of the local and county authorities in not putting into operation the Feeding of the School Children Act, owing to the poverty existing in the area through miners working short time.

The children of nine schools are affected. They are to be kept from school until the Act is put into operation.

It was announced that Sir Richard Redmayne, Chief Inspector of Mines, is to visit the North to inquire into the distribution of the coal trade in Durham County and to try and secure a better allocation of orders.

SUNDERLAND DAILY ECHO

•   •   ◊   •   •

SCHOOL STRIKE ENDED
IN WASHINGTON DISTRICT
Relief for Miners' Distress.

The school strike in the Washington and Usworth district, which was declared on Monday, has been settled, and today the juvenile strikers returned to their studies. In two days these youngsters, by making their fathers' cause their own, have achieved a decisive victory and secured concessions for which their elders have been clamouring for some considerable time.

The 'terms of settlement' were arranged in Durham today. A deputation from the Chester-le-Street Board of Guardians,consisting of Mr E. Cook (chairman), Mr T. Craggs (Washington), Mr Miles Handy (Usworth) and Mr R. V. Dickinson (clerk) waited upon a specially convened meeting of the Durham County Prince of Wales Fund Committee in the Shire Hall, and put the miners' case. They were accorded a sympathetic hearing, and finally the committee agreed that the maximum income of families elegible for relief from the fund should be raised from 24s to 27s per week. This maximum of 27s will not include the Coal Controller's award of 9s weekly nor the money received by the men from the Durham Miners' Association nor the earnings of boys. This means that no family, however slack work may be at the pits, will have less than £2 1s per week coming into the house. Hence, it will not now be necessary to put into operation the Feeding of School Children Act, which was the object of the school strike.

REAL SUFFERING

The concessions granted by the Durham County Prince of Wales Fund Committee will have the effect of banishing the spectre of want from the Washington district. That want was being experienced by many families in the district is incontrovertible. Our representative made careful and thorough inquiries in Washington and its environs, and the facts brought to light lend him to the conclusion that, unfortunately the miners' statement that many families are practically starving is not exaggerated. As is generally known, for some little time past - from four to six months - there has been very little work at the collieries in and around Usworth and Washington. In fact, whereas an ordinary week's work should consist of five shifts, the men latterly have been working only about two and a half shifts per week - sometimes less, and, as a consequence, the miners' weekly wages have averaged not more than about 26s - in some cases much lower. The result has been that, food prices being so high, many of the men have been unable to buy sufficient of the necessities of life to feed themselves, their wives and their families. Of course, the suffering is not universal to the district, but it is undoubtedly considerable, particularly where there are large families, and the miner's family is usually a large one. Some of the children do really look pinched and underfed, and large numbers are either without boots or possess very bad ones.

Our representative's inquiries were not confined to the miners. Schoolmasters and teachers, whose position enables them to judge impartially, stated that there was undoubtedly much suffering in the district. Some of the children bore undoubted signs of malnutrition, and nearly all the teachers had personal knowledge of one or two families which were subject to great privation. Two significant signs were that the pawnshops are, and have been for some time past, very busy, and grocers and other traders have stopped credit.

SUNDERLAND DAILY ECHO  /  THE HERALD

•   •   ◊   •   •

THE WASHINGTON SCHOOL STRIKE

The head teachers serving on the Washington Relief Fund Committee have resigned their positions on that body owing to the strike at the schools on November 19th and November 20th. The Relief Committee have accepted the resignations.

DISTRESS IN COUNTY
Education Committee and Feeding of Children

Ald. Robert Richardson, of Ryhope, presided at a meeting of the Durham County Education Committee held yesterday. Regarding applications for the Education (Provision of Meals) Acts to be put into operation for the parishes of Usworth and Washington, the clerk (Mr A. J. Dawson) said all the necessary arrangements had been made to bring the Act into operation where found necessary. The County Relief Committee having decided to increase the figure for relief to 41s per week in respect of a wife and four children, it was felt that there was no necessity to go on with the feeding of children at Washington and Usworth, and the delegates from those places agreed.

The chairman explained that arrangements had been made to deal in a similar way with all other cases of the kind arising in the county. In reply to Mr Adams (Bishop Auckland) who asked why there should be any differentiation as regards the administration of the National Relief Fund in favour of coal workers, Sir Frank Brown said no preference was shown to any class. The fund was open to all who fullfilled the conditions attaching to its administration.

DURHAM MINERS AND FOOD

Direct action, which we hope, will bring the essential solution, has been taken by the workers, principally colliers, in Washington and Usworth, County Durham, this time in a new direction and for a fresh purpose. The problem of feeding necessitous school children has become of such urgent importance that, in order to compel the education authorities to perform their duties under the Necessitous Children (Meals) Act and provide free breakfasts for hungry children, the parents in this colliery centre have been obliged to call a 'No breakfast, no school' strike.

The short time recently worked at North Country pits has resulted in so much distress, even in these 'prosperous' times, that discussions in the Commons have ensued. The children have suffered severely, and on Sunday week the miners took businesslike action and, at a mass meeting, decided on the 'down slates' policy if the meals were not provided at once. Councillor Handy, a local Labour stalwart, gave it out then that 'this is not a strike for wages and conditions in the pit, but a fight for hungry bairns.'

The position of these children is that many of them have to tramp miles to school along the bleak country roads on empty stomachs or, at best, a sip of tea and a hunk of margarine-less bread. On such scanty fare, reinforced by a lunch of little better sustenance, they are supposed to be able to absorb the mental fare stuffed into them.

On the Monday morning, true to their word, the parents took action, and a lively state of affairs prevailed. Fully fifty per cent of the children were not present at school, and of those who put in an appearance the majority had parents not feeling the pinch so keenly. The schoolmasters readily admit the dire necessity of many of the children, who were, they said, frequently ill-clad and ill-shod. They had also noted a very marked deterioration in the quality of the 'bait' or lunch brought by the children. Bread and margarine is now the standard midday meal.

The little ones appeared to be enjoying their holiday but the matter was regarded more seriously by the older children, who told of how 'father worked only two days last week and brought home a pound for a family of eight.' There are two solutions. Either the miners must have work or the state must feed the children.