Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-05

%
wed. The couple are seen leav
said Cofleld was the oldest perS
license at the bureau.
were paid. Since April, 1880, largely
due to Arthur Greenwood, minister Of
health, there has been decided i'm
relief The former Governors of the
Bedwellty Board had an overdraft of
$5,0O0,00 So impoverished was the
area that store keepers who had been In
business 40 years or longer are bankrupt.
Training Centers Established.
The government has established requi-
sition camps and training centers par
ticularly for young men. It sends for
a number of young men periodically
and asks II they are willing to be sent
to these training centers. bristol,
Dudley, Carshalton, Blackpool, Poole
Harbor, Near Bournemouth, are some
of these.) The youths receive training
mobiles, tool making, etc. However,
they are not looked on as being prop
erly trained when they come out! The
unions will have none Of them, as they
are afraid of cheap labor flooding the
market, and the young man regards his
training with contempt.
The idleness among the youths who
have chosen to remain near their homes,
or who. after failure elsewhere, have
returned, is admittedly demoralizing.
A 20-year-old boy of fine character
said he earned SO week driving a
haulage engine in a coal mine. He had
been working underground since he was
IS. He added the following informa-
ton concerning local conditions:
The maximum a single man can earn
in a mine Is $3.50 week. A married
man can earn from about $40 to ap-
proximately $17.25. A man on the dole,
who has wife and two children, will
receive a little less than $3.50 a week
only about $3.50 less than the minimum
wage paid married miners.
Among convincing statistics in the
writer's possession are those showing
the surprising number of men in all
parts of the country who, as soon as
they get on the dole. marry.
The boy thought the dole necessary
but greatly abused. He had been on
the dole himself. but didn't like it; he
got only $1.85 a week then. He con-
cluded, rather happily, with the infor-
nation that when the small boys of the
district were taken to a Boy Scout camp
and got a meal of bacon and eggs, their
CySo RORPC0 dAAO bAACy OAHU VIC VIC ASfCI
had anything like this before"
Solution Recommended.
A distinguished Government official,
asked by the writer what he would rec
ommend as a solution, said he would
do three things:
Spread knowledge Of birth control.
Convert most Of the pubs saloons
into cafes where food would be taken
with drink, and dominoes, ETC.. played.
Provide a place for every slum child
to play.
And after that?" I asked.
Nothing" he replied.
The idle young men and older boys
throughout this mining area spend
their spare time around street corners
talking, or playing cricket or foot ball,
ususally with a makeshift rubber ball.
The society of friends has been helpful
in the mining districts and has given
leather so man can use 1t to repair
his boots.
The man on dole will not admit
spending money on beer or movies, but
others say he frequently will spend a
little this way and that his family Will
have to do w;xh still less food and
clothes in consequence. The men on
the dole say they would much rather
work, that they are discontinued and
do not feel at liberty.
This Is the unadored narrative OF
the view of those on the dole. It shows
good points and bad points, and 1t in
dicates tendencies of thought, most OF
them, unfortunately, OF a character to
cause uneaSineSS.
It seems, nevertheless, that the miner
is too much inclined to say that the
whole question is hopeless and that the
responsibility IS up to the country any
way.
Children Are Profound Concern.
Another point that strikes the visitor
is the need among the women for more
information about food values and
about varieties in cheap foods. It
seems stupid to be feding little children
tea three times a day, although the
children who need 1t have milk twice a
day at school.
These unhappy children, inheritors
Of an empty life. with their makeshift
scooters, hoops and kiddie cars, their
thin, shabby and so often miserably
dirty clothes and their environment of
idleneSs! Truly, in all this vast and
disturbing problem, they stand out as
the profound concern for England to
ponder. They grow up, Onderprivilege
in a demoralizing at
mosphere of false values, without that
stimulating example of proud industry
and thrift which is the core Of home
influence. And rapidly they reach the
age when they, too, with this cheap and
insufficient preparation, must go out
into life and join the army seeking
work.
But there Is nothing for theml
Copyright. 1891, by North American News
paper Alliance, 1nc)