The Washington herald., 1922-01-17
NEEDY FAMILY =.
GIVEN WELCOME
AT WHITE HOUSE
President Places SIS Bill
In Hand of Girl for
Candy and Nicies.

Halle and Dorothy Underwood.
aged IL and 10. were a bit awed
by the grandeur of the White House
and its lavish furnishings.
1t was the first time they had ever
been further than fifteen miles from
their home in Mabscott, a mining
town down in the mountains of
West Virginia
The White House wasn't much
like the humble miners home in the
valley.
So the little sisters clung closely
to their mother, Mrs. Alice Under
wood. when uniformed policemen
swung open the doors OF the Prea-
dents home with as much Difference
as Is bestowed on Senators and gen.
erals and diplomats.
Halle and Dorothy lost some OF
their awe when they were ushered
before a big kindly man who smiled
at them and patted their heads They
could understand smiles. and there
had not been any too many down
President.
Heart Touched BY Plea.
Halle and Dorothy heard their
mother and the miners with her tell
the President about their desire to
keep from being evicted from the
little mountain home they had left
And they saw the President listen
with compassion to tales OF hunger
and privation and poverty. end heard
him promise to help IL he could.
They saw the big, kindly man
reach in his pocket
Then he gave a IS bill TO Halle
1t was more money than she had
ever possessed before.
HALLE" said the President. Il am
going to give you IS. and 1 want
you to spend IL for candy and nice
things for Dorothy and yourself. i
want you to have a good time
while you are in Washington"
Mrs. Cnderwood-a widow-was
one of a committee who told the
President of conditions down in the
coal fields. Hundreds of miners
families have been served with
eviction notices and are about to
be put out in the road with their
possessions. And that road has
eight inches of snow on it.
'1 have been served with an
eviction notice by the New River
Coal Company" said Mrs. Under
wood. and We are to be set out
in the road next Wednesday morn
ing. We have no place to go.
Wood Packed by Girls.
What we are to do I do not
know This is a terrible winter on
all of us. We have been without
food many a day. More than one
night my children have gone to bed
hungry. The only fuel we have
had for our house this winter is
pieces of wood these two little girls
have picked up in the woods and
carried q half or three-Quarters of
mile.
up to the time that We started
to Washington on this trip neither
my children nor I had a stitch of
underwear" The mother explained
that she has two grown sons who
cannot obtain employment.
Hundreds of families are with
cut food and clothing" Yrs. Under-
wood said. Children cannot go to
school because they can get neither
clothes nor books. The people are
at the end Of their string"
The appeal to the President was
the last resort.
Committee members told the
President union men had been
blacklisted and could find no work,
even on public projects. Hundreds
of families were said to be on the
verge of starvation.
The President sent the commit
tee to confer with the Secretary of
Labor, after requesting him to pre-
vent evictions IL possible Law
frencs Dwyer. Of Beckley, Spokesman
for the committee, said he felt en-
couraged as a result OF the confer
ence with Davis. who. he said, had
heard the miners case sympathet-
ically. The committee is to visit
Davis again Tuesday.