Part 3

The next delegate meeting was held on the 30th of July. There was an attendance of thirty-two delegates. The only matters needing a place in our history were the appointment of another agent or assistant, and an increase in the wages of the agents.

It was decided to appoint "Tommy Ramsey," and his wage to be 28s. per week. The wage of the other agents was fixed at 25s. per week, with 10s. travelling expenses and 5s. per week house rent. These sums to include all expenses within their respective districts.

The first Annual Meeting was held on December 3rd, 1870, in the Market Hotel, Durham, and the proceedings and programme occupy three columns of _The Durham Chronicle_.

The reason arises out of the dual nature of the meeting, it being council and committee. The secretary's report showed that there were 1891 financial members on the books, and the total worth of the Society was 7s. 1½d. per member. Our purpose will be met if we select the main points, leaving those of a local and temporary character. First, in that general category we have a request for Durham to join the Amalgamated Association of Miners. This was not acceded to, but copies of the rules were written for. Second, the appointment of treasurer and his payment. Mr N. Wilkinson was appointed, and his salary was to be 25s. per quarter (much less than many of our local treasurers receive now). Yet Mr Wilkinson felt proud of the office, and promised to merit their confidence during the year. Third, the question of sending a delegate to the Miners' National Conference, and the business, which was to discuss the Mines Bill. It is very obvious that the county was feeling its way very carefully, and with great regard to economy, for one delegate said it would take one-twelfth of the income to send a representative, independently of the entrance fee. It was finally agreed to send Mr Crawford. Fourth, the question of cumulative voting was brought forward by Murton as follows:--"That each delegate have an additional vote for every 100 members he represented." The proposal, however, was lost by fourteen to eight. Fifth, the appointment of the officers for the year. These were elected as follows:--

Secretary, A. Cairns; Treasurer, N. Wilkinson; President, W. Crawford; Vice-President, W. H. Patterson; the Committee being Mr Munson, T. Mitcheson, M. Thompson, M'Mann, J. Jackson, W. Coulthard, and I. Perks.

A very fitting finish to the year 1870 will be a reference to another letter by Mr Crawford. The object of his attack was the Rev. Mr Blagdon, Newbottle. This gentleman had said he hated and detested unions, and this roused the temper of Crawford, and plainly he talked to him. He reminded the parson of the condition of the miner, and he pointed to the contrast between his conduct and that of Christ.

"But I suppose," said Crawford, "things are changed. Of course, we live in an age of progression, and we ought to leave behind us those old and antiquated practices of practical philanthropy. Christ always spoke the truth too. When He made a promise it was always kept."

Then he asks:

"What wrong are the workmen doing? Our only aim is the establishment of common justice amongst mankind. We have myriads of men, women, and children who but seldom receive an approximate sufficiency of the commonest necessaries of life. And it is a self-evident fact that nothing will render human existence so miserable and short as social destitution, bringing, as a matter of consequence, mental pressure or anxiety of mind. Even comparative want is prejudicial to physical health. This brings care and anxiety. They act and react on each other, often doing their deadly work ere men have passed half their allotted threescore years and ten. That these things exist are incontrovertible facts. And does their removal by moral and philosophical means not _in part_ pertain to the work which this gentleman has chosen for himself in life? History and observation alike teach that, where a people are socially depressed, moral culture is a most difficult matter, and, where moral cultivation is no easy task, to spiritualise is next to an utter impossibility. So that in reality, when rightly viewed, there is a very near kinship, and ought to be, in working a very close connection between the Union to which the Philadelphia Society belongs and the work in which this reverend gentleman is engaged. Whether or not Mr Blagdon will endorse these sentiments I cannot say; however, be that as it may, when in future he makes a promise let him keep it, and likewise cease to give utterance to such vehement expressions as hating and detesting that about which he seems to understand but little indeed. By pursuing such a course he will in future save himself the merited contempt of his parishioners."

This quotation will serve a twofold purpose: it will give an example of Mr Crawford's vigorous style of writing when roused and at his best, and it will indicate the kind of opposition the young Association was met with at this very delicate and important period of its existence. Those who should have welcomed all effort towards better things should have assisted instead of thwarting and maligning.

The year 1871 found the builders of the Association untiring in their efforts, but still meeting great discouragements. These came mainly from the apathy of the people whom they were trying to help. Like Nehemiah they had their Sanballats, who did their best to prevent the work; but, inspired by the belief in the power of a united people to better their own condition, they fought and built, making headway but slowly. In the early part of January a Miners' Conference was held in Manchester to consider the Mines Regulation Bill, the Trades Union Bill, the Truck Bill, and kindred subjects. The delegate from Durham was Mr W. Crawford, and the number he represented was 18,000.

Before proceeding further with the account of the building we will place on record the first collective action taken by the young Association. This was in relation to the inundation which happened at Wheatley Hill on Thursday, the 19th of January 1871. The colliery had been in operation about six months; there were thirteen hewers, five putters, and three helpers up, with the necessary deputies and others, at the time it occurred. There were five lives lost, and others had a very narrow escape. There is no need to describe in detail the whole circumstances. It will be sufficient to say that a man named Roberts was in a place which was being driven in the main coal at Thornley for the purpose of tapping some water which was lying on the Thornley side in order that it might be run to the other colliery which lies to the "dip." In addition to those who lost their lives, other two were rescued after being in the mine fifty-four hours.

The Miners' Association was not slow in taking part in the subsequent proceedings, and at the inquest which opened on the 25th at the Colliery Office, Wheatley Hill, by Mr Crofton Maynard (whose able services are still given to inquiries into the sad accidents in the Easington Ward), the Association was represented by Mr W. Crawford. On his application that witnesses should be summoned on behalf of the workmen the Coroner readily consented to an adjournment until Wednesday, the 8th of February. The adjourned inquest was held at Wingate Grange, when Mr A. Cairns, Secretary, and Mr W. Crawford, Agent, were present on behalf of the Association, with Mr Kewney, Solicitor, of North Shields, to watch the proceedings. After a very long and exhaustive inquiry the verdict was "that the deceased were killed on the 19th of January by a burst of water in the Wheatley Hill pit, through the gross negligence of W. Spencer, head viewer, W. Hay, resident viewer, and Thomas Watson, overman; and that the said W. Spencer, W. Hay, and T. Watson did kill and slay the five deceased previously mentioned by neglecting to put in proper bore holes for the safe working of the mine." On that verdict the Coroner committed the accused for trial at the Assizes on a charge of manslaughter.

The trial took place at the March Assizes before Baron Martin. The counsel for the Association were Mr Herschell (afterwards Lord Chancellor) and Mr J. Edge. The writer of this history was in court, and heard the trial, and the able speech made by Mr Herschell, whose object was to show that there had been a violation of the Mines Act of 1860, the fifteenth rule of which was to the effect "that bore holes should be kept in advance, and if necessary on both sides, on approaching places likely to contain a large quantity of water." The Grand Jury had thrown out the Bill, but the case was still proceeded with. It was clear the judge was against the proceedings after the throwing out of the Bill; and eventually the workmen's counsel withdrew the case, because the judge was of the opinion that Roberts (the hewer in whose place the water broke away) should have known as well as the manager how near the water was to them, and because, on the technical point, it was quite clear how the judge would direct the jury. The accused were therefore acquitted. One little piece of funny puzzling of the judge is very vividly remembered. Roberts was not a native of the county, but was doing his best to train himself in the peculiarities of a dialect which, when spoken by a Durham man, is to a stranger difficult to understand, but more so when it comes from a Welsh tongue. At one part of the proceedings the judge asked Roberts what he was doing when the water broke in. The reply was: "Aw hed getten me jud korved, and the hole marked off, and was gannen back for the drills." With surprise the judge repeated the question, and received the same answer. Perplexed, but not enlightened, a second query was put: "What did you do then?" "Aw run doon the board and up the stenton." Innocently the judge put a supplementary question: "Was it a wide plank you ran along?" thinking the word board meant a piece of timber laid for Roberts to walk on. Upon an explanation being given he confessed that, in the whole of his experience, he had never been so much puzzled before.

In our review of the building of the Association it will not be necessary to mention the work in the county except so far as it relates to the object we are dealing with: the raising and strengthening of the organisation and the changes in policy and procedure. The first Council in 1871 was held on March 25th. The attendance of delegates was moderate, and Mr Crawford, the President of the Association, was called to the chair.

At this meeting we have the first mention of the Yearly Demonstration. It was moved "that the Council take into consideration the desirability of holding a general meeting of miners in the central district, the expenses of such to be paid from the Central Fund." The time named was shortly after Easter. It was likewise arranged for the agents to live in Durham. Mr Crawford at that time was residing in Sunderland, and Mr Patterson in Bishop Auckland. This, it was felt, interfered very much with the necessary consultation and arranging of work. A series of resolutions was brought forward by Mr Crawford. First, that "minerals be weighed only, seeing that measuring and gauging are sources of endless losses to the hewers." Second, "that miners ought to be allowed to place on the pit bank as checkweighman a man of their own choice, whether such person be one of the workmen or not." Third, the appointment of an additional number of inspectors or sub-inspectors is required--the number of pits in 1869 in the whole country being 3206, and only 12 inspectors, which gave an average of 267 pits each. The following resolution was carried:--

"We believe that to make inspection thoroughly effective, mines ought to be inspected at intervals not exceeding three months."

The fourth resolution was "that no boy should be allowed to work more than ten hours a day." The Murton delegate seconded the resolution, and said: "Miners were often referred to as an ignorant set of men, but if they received more attention than they did in the seed-time of life perhaps better fruit would be received. At present their boys went to work at half-past four in the morning, and did not leave the mine till half-past five in the evening. By the time they got home, washed themselves, and had a little refreshment it was seven o'clock. Certainly night schools were provided for the boys, but he could not see the utility of them, as the minds of the lads after being so many hours in the pit were incapable of receiving instruction. Providing schools under these circumstances for pit lads was like preparing food for persons who had no appetite." That speech is worth quoting and remembering, because it gives us so clearly the condition in that year and shows so graphically the change since then. The young men at least will do well to ponder the lesson. To them it means much, and tells them the benefit they have (in this alone) received from the labours of those men who so unselfishly toiled in the early days.

At this time a question arose which evoked great feeling in the Thornley district in particular, and throughout the county in general. This was the refusal by Mr Cooper, the manager at Thornley, to bind Mr A. Cairns, the Secretary of the Association, who was checkweighman, and Mr J. Jackson, one of the Executive Committee. At that time, it should be remembered, a man to be a checkweighman must be, and remain, a workman on the colliery, and therefore be "bound" as all other men were. The situation is interesting for two points--first, because it was productive of some very strong letter writing by Mr Crawford in defence of the two men; and second, because it is the first recorded instance of an offer from the men to apply arbitration as a means of settling disputes between employers and workmen under this Association. The offer was contained in a resolution passed at a special Council held in the Market Hotel, Durham, on 8th April. The following is a portion of the resolution:--

"This meeting strongly urges on the Thornley workmen the propriety of offering to submit the whole case to arbitration, the members of the Board chosen to be composed of an equal number from both sides; the arbitrators to elect an umpire whose decision shall be final."

I quote two sentences from one of Mr Crawford's letters:

"The entire transactions both on the part of the masters, and these perfidious hirelings [certain blacklegs] is contemptible in the extreme, clearly showing to working men that where they have not, by combination, the power to protect themselves they will only be endured so long as they are passive slaves in the hands of grasping greediness. Men need to arise, and by an active concentration of organised power frustrate that intolerance so rampant among them, an intolerance diametrically opposed to the spirit of the age, and one that will not hesitate to build its own advancement on the spoliation and desolation, and if necessary the damnation, of myriads of immortal beings."

OUR FIRST GALA

The first in the long series of meetings was held in Wharton's Park, Durham, on Saturday, the 12th of August 1871. For some time prior district meetings had been held in different parts of the county, and great efforts made to secure a good gathering. In addition, a "sum amounting to £20 was offered in three prizes for a Band Contest, and liberal money prizes for various athletic sports." There was a charge for admission, and it was estimated that between 4000 and 5000 paid for admission. The speakers outside the Association were A. Macdonald, W. Brown, Staffordshire, and John Normansell, Yorkshire. The local speakers were Mr W. H. Patterson, Mr Hendry, Addison Colliery; Mr T. Ramsey, Mr N. Wilkinson, Mr Allens, Mr Young, Addison Colliery; and Mr Ferguson, Edmondsley. The platform was decorated with the Thornley banner, and in the arena was a banner bearing the inscription: "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work." The chairman was Mr W. Crawford. His first words were: "This is the first great Gala Day of the Durham Miner's Mutual Confident Association, and I only pray that it will not be the last." He reminded them that he and his colleagues had only been trying to organise the county. They had met with great difficulties, but they were still alive, and more likely to continue alive than ever. "I can assure you," he said, "that on this, the 12th day of August 1871, the Durham Miners' Association was never in a more healthy position; never more healthy with regard to its feeling and determination to carry on its great work of organising the county; never more healthy with respect to its funds; and never more healthy in reference to the general progressive tendency of its operations, since the first day the Association was established." To quote the speeches would be foreign to the purpose of this history. The speakers were men who did great work in the Trades Union movement in the period with which we are now dealing. William Brown had peculiar methods, partaking more of a religious revivalist. He ofttimes at home opened his meetings with prayer, and had a small collection of songs (entitled melodies and poems), from which he would sing before he commenced to speak (and he was a singer). For some months it was the privilege of the writer to be engaged as a lecturer in the Midlands by the Miners' National Union in 1878, three weeks of which were spent with Brown in North Stafford, and therefore there was a good opportunity of judging. At this first Gala Brown sang two of these songs, and recited the following poem:--

WORKING MEN

"Think what power lies within you, For what triumphs you are formed; Think, but not alone of living Like the horse from day to day; Think, but not alone of giving Health for pelf, and soul for pay. Think, oh! be machines no longer, Engines made of flesh and blood; Thought will make you fresher, stronger, Link you to the great and good; Thought is a wand of power, Power to make oppression shrink, Grasp ye then the precious dower, Poise it, wield it, work and think."

These men, heroes of the highest order, who inaugurated one of the finest series of labour meetings ever held in this or any other county, who saw the possibilities which lay within us, and who spoke such words of hope, have all passed to the reward which awaits the good and the true who battle for the right in whatever clime or sphere of life. Their spirits still live and move and have being in many to-day, bearing testimony that "the good men do lives after them."

A delegate meeting was held on the 9th of September 1871, Mr Crawford presiding, at which three general matters were transacted. It was decided to retain a solicitor to transact the legal business of the Association and act as adviser. Arrangements were to be made to open a proper banking account, and it was resolved to join the Miners' National Association.

The next delegate meeting of importance was held in the Shakespeare Hall, North Road, Durham. Mr J. Forman was now chairman (although still continuing to live at Roddymoor)--Mr Crawford being appointed secretary, Mr Wilkinson treasurer, and Mr Patterson agent. The matter under discussion was the wage settlement, some dissatisfaction being manifested at the difference between the men underground and those at bank, and a report was made of the first case settled by arbitration. This was at the Lizzie Colliery, the arbitrators being T. Taylor-Smith and Mr W. Crawford.

THE LEADERS

With the Council meeting held on Tuesday, March 26th, 1872, by the election of Mr Forman as president and Mr Crawford as secretary, and the regular meetings with the employers being recognised, we have the Association fully and solidly established. Before we proceed further it will be in natural order if we take a short glance at the men who were at the head of it. There is no need to enlarge upon them; a bare outline will be sufficient. The first in prominence and force was Mr W. Crawford. When appointed he was outside the county, but owing to his having been secretary of the combined counties he was known to the Durham men as an able and forcible Trades Unionist. When the separation between the two counties took place he was engaged as secretary of the Northumberland Association. This post, says Fynes in his history, he filled "with great ability until June 1865, and made himself a great favourite in Northumberland, but he then left the Association in order to take the secretaryship of the Cowpen Co-operative Store at Blyth." Mr Burt was elected to succeed him. In 1870, when Mr Crawford applied for the position of agent in Durham, he was selected from a number of candidates. It was at this time that the writer had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, and had large opportunities of forming an estimate of his ability. Never had any man more force of character or more executive power. His individuality was very large. He had no love for platform work, and the love for that sphere lessened as he grew older; but he had no superior and few equals in his grasp of, and power to find a solution of, the peculiar difficulties and complications which arise in an occupation like the miners. He was a solver of difficulty and a manager of men, and in every way fitted for the post of secretary of a trades organisation. From his appointment to his death he filled it with a skill few men can command.

_N. Wilkinson_, the first treasurer of the Association, had worked at Trimdon Grange as a fireman. At the date of his appointment he was earning a living by tea selling, having lost his employment on account of his Trades Union principles. His first appointment was temporary, and when elected permanently he was living at Coxhoe. As soon as the Union was fairly started he was made treasurer permanently, and so acted till 1882. As a speaker he was of a blunt, straightforward order. As Othello says: "His was a round unvarnished tale and he told it right on." At the commencement, when announced on the bills it was as "Nicky Wilkinson," and no man could be in the least doubt but that when he spoke to them on the Union and its usefulness it was from the heart. As a man in those stern and trying times he was, as those who were his colleagues would testify, a man upon whom they could depend in any testing circumstances.

_Mr J. Forman._--He was the first regular chairman. At the time of his appointment he was checkweighman at Roddymoor, and when spoken of it was as "Forman of Roddymoor." He came from Northumberland to Annfield Plain when a young man. He acted as president of the Association for a time, and followed his occupation as checkweighman; then in 1874 he was appointed a permanent official, and removed to Durham. He continued in that position until his death on the 2nd of September 1900, at the age of seventy-seven. He was an ideal president. It is not saying too much--his superior could not be found. The fact of his appointment to that position indicated the prominent part he took in the formation of the Union. He was more of an adviser than a platform speaker. He preferred a quiet, retiring life in which he could be useful rather than ornamental. Although shunning public notoriety he was no shirker when danger demanded the presence of men, for in all the explosions which happened during the term of his office he was one of the foremost; and almost single-handed he stood out for the dust theory when men of noted scientific knowledge were against him.